Greek Rally

Greek Rally (ES,Greek: Ελληνικός Συναγερμός ΕΣ, Ellinikos Synagermos ES) was a Greek right-wing political party founded on 6 August 1951 by former field marshal Alexandros Papagos. The party encompassed a broad spectrum of the royalist conservative right in Greek society and was modeled on the Charles de Gaulle's Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF). The creation of the party reflected the interests of the United States, who believed it would help clean up the image of the Greek right and make it attractive to centrist voters. Throughout the years, the Greek right, represented by the People's Party, had become splintered. Papagos' new party managed to attract considerable support, and the Populist Uniting Party (led by Panagiotis Kanellopoulos and Stephanos Stephanopoulos) and the New Party (led by Spiros Markezinis) dissolved and merged with the Greek Rally. The popularity of Papagos, who had reinstated the autonomy of the Greek military during his tenure as its commander, enabled the party to quickly eclipse the Populists. In the September 1951 general election, the Greek Rally garnered 114 parliamentary seats (taking 36.5 per cent of the vote) compared to the People's Party two seats. In the subsequent November 1952 general election, the Greek Rally gained 240 out of 300 seats in the Greek Parliament, an achievement helped in no small way by a change in the electoral system. The party effectively ended with the death of its leader in October 1955. His successor, Konstantinos Karamanlis, relaunched the party as the National Radical Union.