Charilaos Trikoupis

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Charilaos Trikoupis (Greek: Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης; 11 July 1832 – 30 March 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.

He is best remembered for introducing the vote of confidence in the Greek constitution, proposing and funding such ambitious and modern projects as the construction of the Corinth Canal, but also eventually leading the country to bankruptcy. Nowadays, considered the founder of modern Greece.^[2]

Born in

In 1872 he created his own party, called the Fifth Party (Πέμπτο Κόμμα) on a reformist agenda. On June 29, 1874 (Julian calendar) he published a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to blame?"^[4] (Greek: Τις Πταίει;) for people's lack of trust in the system, naming George I of Greece as the answer. Specifically, he criticized George for bypassing public opinion expressed in elections in his selection of Prime Ministers. Trikoupis wrote that the political instability, which characterized public life was due to the privilege of the Crown, as far as the appointment and ousting of governments was concerned. This privilege may have derived from the Greek Constitution of 1864, but it resulted in the formation of weak minority governments, which were based exclusively on the royal favor.

Moreover, the manifesto underlined that if "remedy is not applied", the country will revolt. In order to prevent this, the writer suggested the restriction of the royal privileges with the introduction of the principle of "declared confidence" (confidence vote) which, as he supported, would bring about the harmonization of the political life via the formation of a basically two-party parliamentary system: "As long as the King offers power [...] to the parliamentary minority, the suitors of the authority will multiply indefinitely. However, if he sincerely decides to invite to power only the majority, [...] the minorities will agree making concessions and will merge into a majority. [...] Therefore, it is not the fault of the regime, it is not the fault of the representatives of the Nation, it is not the fault of the Nation, if the Parliament is divided in many parties and has no majority when demanded. [...] The vice lies elsewhere and it is there that a remedy should be sought".

The article landed him briefly in jail^[5] but also boosted his popularity significantly. A year later, on May 8, 1875 he mustered a parliamentary majority and King George I reluctantly named him as Prime Minister as the leader of a new Reformist party called the New (or Modernist) Party (Νεωτεριστικόν Κόμμα).

Among his first acts was the reform of election law and the establishment of the "

It was not until 1882 that he was able to take measures to this end. On March 15, 1882, he became prime minister for the third time (his second period of office, two years earlier, had lasted only for a few months), and at once set about the task of putting Greek finance upon a firmer basis, and of increasing the prosperity of the country by making roads, railways and harbours.[3] Despite his vision of a progressive nation with modern infrastructure, Greece was a poor and backwards country in the latter part of the 19th century.

His government was relatively stable and lasted for more than three years. During that time, he was able to push through an aggressive program of reforms. Trikoupis was a strong believer in the need to create an infrastructure to support the economy, and to attract foreign investment. A progressive program of road and railroad construction significantly improved internal communications. The most important of the works he campaigned for was the digging of the

His difficulties, however, were now increased by the large expenditure that had been incurred for military preparations while he had been out of office as the result of the union effected between

He was defeated at the 1885 general election, but in the following year he resumed office and again took up the cause of economic and financial reform.[3]

Despite the Greek government receiving more than generous funding from

His sixth turn in office (June 22, 1892 – May 15, 1893) was a dramatic one. The country's treasury had been depleted by overspending and

Trikoupis was again in power from November 11, 1893 until January 24, 1895. It was during that time that the planning for the 1896 Summer Olympics was begun. Trikoupis was skeptical about the games as he feared that the country could not shoulder the cost. He was convinced, eventually, to host them and made the needed arrangements. This would be his last term in office.^[3]

Trikoupis tried to make terms with the creditors of his nation, but he failed in that too. The taxation measures he proposed to combat the country's bankruptcy aroused great hostility, and in January, 1895 he resigned.^[3] At the general election, four months later, he and his Modernist Party were astoundingly defeated by his main political rival, Theodoros Deligiannis, and Trikoupis did not even manage to win a seat in the parliament. This led to him resigning from politics and moving to Cannes.

In the 17 March 1896 elections, he was involuntarily nominated as an MP, and was elected back into Parliament, but Trikoupis never returned to Greece to assume his seat; he died in Cannes on 30 March 1896. He was buried in Athens.

Trikoupis is considered one of the greatest modern Greek politicians for his reformist and modernising programs as well as for the introduction of the dedilomeni principle. Roads in all major Greek cities, as well as the Rio–Antirrio Bridge, have been named after him.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charilaos Trikoupis.

• Tsokapoulos, Βιογραφία Χαριλάου Τρικούπη, Athens, 1896.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Fyfe, Henry Hamilton (1911). "Tricoupis, Charilaos". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 267.

Notes

Political offices
Preceded by Dimitrios Voulgaris	Prime Minister of Greece 27 April - 15 October 1875=	Succeeded by Alexandros Koumoundouros
Preceded by Alexandros Koumoundouros	Prime Minister of Greece 21–26 October 1878	Succeeded by Alexandros Koumoundouros
Preceded by Alexandros Koumoundouros	Prime Minister of Greece 10 March - 13 October 1880	Succeeded by Alexandros Koumoundouros
Preceded by Alexandros Koumoundouros	Prime Minister of Greece 3 March 1882 - 19 April 1885	Succeeded by Theodoros Deligiannis
Preceded by Dimitrios Valvis	Prime Minister of Greece 9 May 1886 - 24 October 1890	Succeeded by Theodoros Deligiannis
Preceded by Konstantinos Konstantopoulos	Prime Minister of Greece 10 June 1892 - 3 May 1893	Succeeded by Sotirios Sotiropoulos
Preceded by Sotirios Sotiropoulos	Prime Minister of Greece 30 October 1893 - 12 January 1895	Succeeded by Nikolaos Deligiannis