The demise of monarchy in Greece
I would like to present the balanced account on the demise of the monarchy in Greece by Greek-born, US-based, physician and academic C A Hassapoyannes MD PhD.
"In general, many Greeks tend to pontificate making statements that are emotionally loaded, thus biased. For example, some argue that, since ancient times, the Hellenes were not used to monarchy as a form of government. This is incorrect. In ancient Greece, many city-states were kingdoms, others were republics but both thrived and prospered. Other Greeks would argue that the members of the royal family are "foreigners" [xenoi, ξένοι], but this is also a flawed argument. The Bernadottes of Sweden are French, the Bourbons of Spain are French, the Windsors of the United Kingdom are Hanoverians, the Glucksburgs of Norway are Danish/Germanic and so on. What is true is that all the above dynasts were assimilated into these nations, while the Glucksburg-Becks were never hellenized except for King Constantine and his children, but that was too late and too little.
In the first half of the 20th century, there was the rift and feud between the Anglophile Venizelists and the pro-German Royalists, the National Schism that contributed to the Micrasiatiki Catastrophe. However, upon the return of King George II after the referendum of 1946, and due to the communist threat, the prospects for the monarchy seemed good. During the peak of the civil war (1947-1949), Frederika, then Princess Diadoch (and as of April 1947, upon George II’s death, Queen) showed tremendous bravery by visiting the war-front (!), earning herself immense popularity. Thereafter, however, questions about the distribution of the Queen’s Fund, the Court’s style, which was comparable to that of western European states but absurd for a despairing country (from 1955 to 1963, 1.5 million Greeks emigrated to Australia, Canada and Germany) and, last but not least, Queen Frederika’s unconstitutional mingling with state affairs earned her gradually the wrath of the people. Most notorious was the royal couple’s unilateral decision to proceed with a state visit to the United Kingdom in 1963. In brief, after a physical attack by an imprisoned Greek communist’s British wife, Mrs. Betty Abatielou, on Queen Frederika, during a private visit of hers to attend a Kent relative’s wedding in London, near Claridge’s hotel, in 1962, the Greek government, fearing demonstrations and further damage to Greece’s image, had advised postponement. The state visit went on with unprecedented demonstrations outside Buckingham Palace and riots in the streets of London, so much so that the Greek people’s outcry prompted the resignation of premier Constantine Karamanlis. In late 1963, the latter was self-exiled to Paris.
King Paul, in contrast, was quiet, easy-going and well liked by the people but Queen Frederika left a lasting negative impression, a stigma on the monarchy! Spyridon Markezinis’ acclaimed History of Modern Greece gives an authoritative account of her attitude and deeds (Note: Markezinis was a right-wing politician and an avowed royalist). The Palace earned even the wrath of right-wing prime-minister and, later, President of the Republic Constantine Karamanlis (premier 1955-63, 1974-80; president 1980-85, 1990-95). Karamanlis, in fact, was the man who pulled the carpet under King Constantine’s feet in 1974.
King Constantine went to a good school, Anavryta, but his education was not furthered. Going to college was not de rigueur for royalty back then, but he was not enthusiastic about scholarly matters either. Instead, he excelled in sportsmanship which, along with a robust appearance, earned him popularity among the extremes of society, ie, the social elite and the peasants. His image was enhanced by his marriage to youthful, astonishingly good looking and elegant Anne-Marie of Denmark, who captivated the Greeks overnight! Ill-prepared as he was at age 25, he took a series of unpopular and barely constitutional steps (summer of 1965). The then prime-minister George Papandreou, a centrist and fierce anticommunist who had been elected with 54% of the popular vote, was forced to resign. The resultant political crisis, known as Iouliana (July 1965), formed the substrate for the coup d’ etat of 1967. Alas, the aging Papandreou had warned him (in paraphrase), “Βασιλεύ [Roy], a disagreement between the Conservative Party and the monarch is a routine family fight, but a conflict between the Democratic Party and the king may be catastrophic.”
Following the fall of the Junta and the restoration of the Republic by the 1974 plebiscite, the image of King Constantine was damaged inadvertently by his attempt, from London in 1977, to instigate a military coup d’ etat, as the late, then prime-minister, Karamanlis indicated in his archives. Finally, the marriage of the King’s eldest son to a person that, in the public eye, is a parvenue and greedy roturiere has turned the former royal family into a target of social contempt and ridicule. Pandora, the satirical columnist of TO VIMA, perhaps the most influential Athenian daily, has coined the nickname Maria-Canella, Canella being many a homely woman’s name and, meaning cinnamon.
The Greeks have always loved άρτον και θεάματα [bread and spectacle] and, of late, following the European integration, economic prosperity and the emergence of a new class of “rich and famous” after Andreas Papandreou’s “socialist" social restructuring, the nation has become obsessed with gossip, glamour and trash TV like every western society. An unprecedented number of Greeks watched Paul’s wedding on Antenna, Hola-type tabloids enjoy an unqualified success and a quasi-journalist gives lessons on royal etiquette, but these phenomena in no way reflect the westernized Greeks’ attitude toward monarchy as a polity. In essence, the issue lies nowadays beyond personalities and personages, and above who did what and when; it is about the concept. In a recent poll, only around 10% of Greeks still favor the monarchy, a meaningless popularity, comparable to the combined 10 +/- % of the traditional and reform communist parties.
It has been argued that, had King Constantine exercised even a trace of his brother-in-law King Juan Carlos of Spain’s wisdom and prudence, there would still be the Kingdom of Greece. Ironically, the fall of King Constantine was precipitated by the monarchy’s own flesh and blood, the conservative party! In a de profundis interview to Thanassis Lalas of TO VIMA’s supplement BHMAgazino, in 2003, Princess Irene said about her brother’s vicissitudes, “Είναι σαν να έρχεται ένας συγγενής στό σπίτι σας και να σας μαχαιρώνει” [“It was like a relative coming to your house and butchering you”].
On balance, there were many a time that the Greek politicians were viciously devious toward the monarchs, but it is also true that the monarchs more often than not treated Greece like a banana republic. At this juncture, all is history and, perhaps, as the wise Irene put it in the same interview, “..... ήταν γραφτό να γίνει ό,τι έγινε” [“..... what happened was destined to happen”]. "