19 February 1964 1974 → 1963 1951 118 seats, 39.37% 43 seats, 14,34% | 1961 1963 126 seats, 42.04% 118 seats, 39.37% 171 107 | |
Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 16 February 1964. They resulted in a clear victory for Georgios Papandreou and his Center Union party.
Papandreou had formed an interim government just after the legislative elections of 1963, in order to carry out new elections, because no party had the absolute majority in the Parliament. The Greek people voted for a strong and robust government, offering the Center Union a landslide victory.
On the other hand, the National Radical Union was too weak, after Constantine Karamanlis had abandoned politics and exiled himself to Paris. The new party leader, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos formed an alliance with the Progressive Party of Spyros Markezinis, an alliance, which offered no gains to the right-wing parataxis. A year before such an alliance could have been more successful.
Another reason for the landslide victory of the Center Union was the indirect support for the centrists by the United Democratic Left (ΕΔΑ), which turned intentionally a part of its electorate towards the Center Union. It was the antipathy towards the conservatives that brought the two parties of the center-left closer.
Aftermath
Just after the elections, Georgios Papandreou formed his first solid government, which would last till 1965, when a new political turmoil, the so-called Apostasia (lit. "defection"), namely a fierce confrontation with King Constantine II, caused its fall and the appointment of a series of weak governments, comprising centrist defectors and supported by the National Radical Union and King Constantine II.
The elections of 1964 were the last before the enforcement of a military dictatorship, which exploited the endless political unrest.