| Abstract |
The post-civil war era left an indelible mark on the functioning of the political instututions of the Greek state. The Greek Civil War contributed decisively
to the creation of a climate of class division and ideological polarization of greek
society within the country dividing the people into “national minded” and “antinationally actors”. The dominant ideological trends of “Greek-Christian” national mindness and post-war anti-communism imbued Greek society with the values and ideals of a new post-war political system, while keeping the memory
of the civil war alive and the wounds of the bloody civil conflict open. In the political system, there was a shift of power from the goverment and the political
parties to an extra-institutional triangle of asymmetrical power, in which the real
centres of power were located, consisting of the institution of Monarchy, the military and the american factor, constituting the main pillars of the post-civil war
structure. On the one hand, the monarchical stance adopted by the King through
the exercise of successive, suffocating and unconstitutional interventions, proved
conclusively that the Palace “did not want to reign, but to rule”. On the other hand, the conspiratorial nature of the Greek army through a series of methodical machinations and sabotage was covered under an anti-communist veil, thus actively intervening in greek politics and always under the pretext of the looming communist threat. Finally, the active intervention of the 'allied' factor in the formulation and elaboration of a pro-American Greek domestic and foreign policy was aimed at the integration of the Greek state within the sphere of influence of the West and the North Atlantic Alliance, always under the auspices of the American tutelage and “protection”. The changing nature of the party system in Greece contributed to a monopolization of political power by the hegemonic right-wing conservative party, the political exclusion of the left-wing party and the total fragmentation of the centrist political space. Yet, the unification of all centrist forces and their consolidation into a single political party in September '61, the Centre Union, managed to overturn the established balance of power in the general elections of '63 and '64, thus marking the renewal of the political personnel after almost a whole decade of right-wing political rule and the beginning of a new period of political domination of the Centre in post-civil war Greece. However, the air of victory for the CU was quickly overshadowed by a series of intra-party frictions and problems due to intense intra-governmental disputes on critical issues of major importance, such as the Cyprus Issue and changes in the top echelons of the military leadership. The clash between King Constantine and Prime Minister G. Papandreou regarding the seizing of the Ministry of National Defence contributed to the final rupture between the Crown and the government and to the creation of a climate of long political crisis and constitutional anomaly, which was characterized as “july events” or “apostasy”, where a series of successive “court” governments - products of royal origin -led to the blatant undermining of parliamentary institututions and the trivialization of constitutional legitimacy, thus significantly prolonging the country's already thinly veiled political crisis. The political instability intensified social exasperation, which manifested itself on the basis of a series of daily combative demonstrations, protests and demonstrations, thus escalating political polarization and raising a “regime question” in order to restore constitutional, parliamentary and democratic legitimacy. The country's political situation was heading towards a total derailment, while the conformations of the post-civil war structure were threatening to collapse. The resort to anti-parliamentary and anti-democratic means to resolve the political impasse, for which all the regime forces of the post-civil war structure were directly responsible, was the final last resort by devising an operational plan of military intervention by revising the old “Prometheus” plan and renaming it “Ierax II”. However, a secret conspiratorial
group of sworn officers through a triumvirate of two colonels and a brigadier first staged a coup on the evening of 20-21 April 1967, thus cutting the gordian knot of the country's thinly veiled political crisis instead of untying it and establishing a seven-year military dictatorship. Through american support, the Junta of the Colonels consolidated its dictatorial regime by dismantling the eminent democratic structures and demolishing the remnants of the parliamentary institutions of the post-civil war greek state, thus stigmatizing once and for all the modern greek political and constitutional history with its black chapter.
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