New Democracy (Greece)

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Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy)




Leader	Kostas Karamanlis

Founded	1974
Headquarters	18, Rigilis str. Athens

Political ideology	Center-right, Liberalism, moderate Conservatism
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union

Website	New Democracy

New Democracy (ND, Greek: Νέα Δημοκρατία, Nea Dhimokratia), founded in 1974, is the main center-right liberal-conservative political party in Greece. After an initial period of success, ND spent most of the 1980s and 1990s in opposition. At the 7 March, 2004 Greek elections, ND returned to office under the leadership of Costas Caramanlis, nephew of the party's founder.

ND was founded on October 4, 1974, two months after Constantine Caramanlis was sworn in as the first Prime Minister in the post-dictatorship era in Greece. Caramanlis had already served as Prime Minister from 1955 to 1963. In the first free elections of the new era, New Democracy won by a landslide, securing 54.4% of the vote. This result is attributed mostly to the personal appeal of Caramanlis, rather than the influence of ND as a party, to the electorate; "Caramanlis or tanks" was a slogan at the time, with the latter referring to the military, which, it was feared, might stage another coup.

Caramanlis intended New Democracy to be a more modern and progressive right-wing party than those which had ruled Greece before the 1967 military coup, including his own ERE (Ethniki Rizospastiki Enosis = National Radical Union). The party's ideology was defined as "radical liberalism," a term defined by ND as "the prevalence of free market rules with the decisive intervention of the state in favour of social justice."

In 1977, ND again won national elections, albeit with a largely reduced majority (41.88%); still, it retained a comfortable parliamentary majority. Under Caramanlis Greece redefined its relations with NATO, and tried to resolve the Cyprus issue following the Turkish invasion. In 1980, however, Caramanlis retired. His successor, George Rallis, was defeated at the following elections by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) led by Andreas Papandreou. Under ND leadership Greece joined the European Communities in 1981. Caramanlis was criticised by opposing parties (which were against the prospect of entering the EEC), for not holding a referendum, despite the fact that entry into the EEC was prominent in the political platform under which New Democracy had been elected to power.

ND returned to power in a coalition government (prime minister: Tzanis Tzannetakis) with the traditional Left Party (Synaspismos, which at the time included the Communist Party of Greece) in 1989, subsequently participated in the grand coalition government of Xenophon Zolotas from November 1989 to April 1990 and, eventually, formed a majority government under Constantine Mitsotakis after new elections were held on April 10, 1990. The party then suffered a period of successive losses. It was defeated in 1993 under Mitsotakis, in 1996 under Miltiades Evert, and in 2000 under Costas Caramanlis, nephew of the party's founder. In 2000 ND lost by 1,06% of the popular vote, the smallest margin in modern Greek history.

By 2003, however, ND was consistently leading the PASOK government of Costas Simitis in opinion polls. In January 2004 Simitis resigned and announced elections for March 7, at which Caramanlis faced the new PASOK leader, George Papandreou. Despite speculation that Papandreou would succeed in restoring PASOK's fortunes, Caramanlis had a comfortable victory in the elections and became Greece's first center-right Prime Minister after eleven years.

ND is a member of the European People's Party, the European Democrat Union, the International Democrat Union and the Christian Democrat International.

[edit] Election results, parliamentary elections 1974-2004

Year	Party Leader	Number of votes	Percentage of votes	Number of members in the Hellenic Parliament	Position in Parliament
1974	Constantine Karamanlis	2,669,133	54.4%	220	Government
1977	Constantine Karamanlis	2,146,365	41.8%	171	Government
1981	George Rallis	2,034,496	35.9%	115	Main opposition party
1985	Constantine Mitsotakis	2,599,681	40.8%	126	Main opposition party
1989-I	Constantine Mitsotakis	2,887,488	44.3%	145	Government in cooperation with SYN
1989-II	Constantine Mitsotakis	3,093,479	46.2%	148	Part of an ecumenist ND-PASOK-SYN government
1990	Constantine Mitsotakis	3,088,137	46.9%	150	Government
1993	Constantine Mitsotakis	2,711,241	39.3%	111	Main opposition party
1996	Miltiadis Evert	2,935,242	38.1%	108	Main opposition party
2000	Kostas Karamanlis	2,935,242	42.7%	126	Main opposition party
2004	Kostas Karamanlis	3,359,058	45.4%	165	Government