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who was waiting in a near room during the meeting between Constantine II and Georgios Papandreou. The fact that Papandreou's successor was sworn in just a few moments after Papandreou's resignation caused a great deal of critisism.
Constantine II with members of the "Stephanos Stephanopoulos" government. Behind him, K. Mitsotakis and I. Tsirimokos The July apostate Papandreou appealed to public opinion with the slogan "the King reigns but the people rule." On July 15, Constantine accepted his resignation and tried to form a series of governments- ghosts using the apostates of the Center Union (members of the party who decided to favor the King) and causing a constitutional crisis that later led to the period of dictatory known as Greek military junta of 1967-1974. One of the prominent members of the centrist politicians who supported the King was the future prime minister and leader of ND, Konstantinos Mitsotakis Constantine II made several attempts to form new governments, but none of them lasted for long. He appointed President of the Parliament Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas as Prime Minister. Athanasiadis-Novas was followed by many Center Union's dissidents and conservative ERE MPs) but not enough to gain a vote of confidence in parliament. He was replaced on August 20 of the same year by Ilias Tsirimokos with similar effects. Failing to gain a vote of confidence, Tsirimokos was dismissed on September 17. Constantine II next induced some of Papandreou's dissidents, led by Stephanos Stephanopoulos, to form a government of "King's men," which lasted until December 22, 1966, amid mounting strikes and protests. When Stephanopoulos resigned in frustration, Constantine appointed an interim government under Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, which called elections for May 1967. This government did not even last till the scheduled elections. Replaced on April 3, 1967, by another interim government under Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Kanellopoulos being the active leader of the National Radical Union and still supposed to organize a fair election in 28 May 1967). There were many indications that Papandreou's Center Union Party (EK) would not be able to form a working government by itself in the scheduled elections. There was a strong possibility that the EK party would be forced into an alliance with socialist EDA (EΔΑ) party, which was suspected by conservatives to be a proxy for the banned Communist Party of Greece (and not totally without cause; while EDA was by no means Communist, the Communist Party had decided to support EDA in the election in hopes for further reforms). This sense of a "Communist threat", along with some right-wing nationalist fractions of the military of Greece, eventually led to the coup d'etat of April 21, 1967 and the period of dictatorship that followed is well known as the period of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 or the "Regime of the Colonels".
See also Constantine II, King of Greece from 1964 to 1974. Konstantinos Mitsotakis, leader of the group who executed the Apostasia move. The period of dictatorship in Greece that followed Apostasia
References
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org"
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