Ioannis Alevras

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Ioannis Alevras
Ιωάννης Αλευράς
Alevras in 1985
President of Greece
Acting
10 March 1985 – 30 March 1985
Prime MinisterAndreas Papandreou
Preceded byKonstantinos Karamanlis
Succeeded byChristos Sartzetakis
Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
In office
17 November 1981 – 3 July 1989
Preceded byDimitrios Papaspyrou
Succeeded byAthanasios Tsaldaris
Personal details
Born1912
Panhellenic Socialist Movement
(1974–1995)
SpouseChristina Alevra

Ioannis Alevras (

Panhellenic Socialist Movement politician and Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, who served as acting President of Greece in March 1985.[1]

Syndicalist

Before becoming a politician, Alevras was employed at the Bank of Greece. He was a prominent syndicalist and a key figure in the foundation of OTOE (Federation of Bank Employee Organizations of Greece) in 1955. OTOE united all relevant trade unions along the lines of craft unionism with Alevras at its head for several years.

Center Union MP

Alevras was first elected to Parliament as a candidate of the

Prime Minister of Greece
on 8 November 1963.

Because no party had the absolute majority in the Parliament, Papandreou carried out the 1964 Greek legislative election. Alevras successfully sought re-election while his party won the elections with a landslide majority (171 seats out of 300, with the alliance of the National Radical Union and the Progressive Party only having 107 seats).

Alevras defended fellow Center Union MP

Aspida scandal. The Aspida Group allegedly comprised officers of the Hellenic Army, who belonged to the centre or the left and wanted to assume control of an army dominated at the time by right-wing officers who had fought in the Greek Civil War
against the left. The alleged scandal had come to public notice in 1965 and Andreas Papandreou was accused of being a member of this conspiracy.

The Aspida scandal led to the so-called

Greek military junta of 1967-1974
, Alevras was imprisoned for resisting the new regime.

PASOK founding member

With the

Center Union - New Forces
electing 60.

He was re-elected in the 1977 Greek legislative election. This time PASOK came second with 93 MPs while New Democracy remained in government with 171 seats in Parliament. Continuing the rise of its popularity, PASOK came first in the 1981 Greek legislative election with 171 MPs while New Democracy only elected 115. Andreas Papandreou became Prime Minister while Alevras was elected Speaker of the Greek Parliament.

Acting President of Greece

In 1985 after President

Constantine Karamanlis resigned, Alevras served as acting President, per the relevant provisions of the Constitution of Greece, causing a controversy over the matter whether his duties as Speaker should be suspended during his tenure as acting President (10–30 March 1985) and if he was eligible to vote in the election of the new President. The issue became all the more controversial, as Christos Sartzetakis
was elected with the minimum number of votes required (180 out of 300) and would have failed to be elected, were it not for Alevras' vote.

Later political career

Later that year, PASOK won the 1985 Greek legislative election with 161 MPS while New Democracy elected 126. Papandreou remained Prime Minister and Alevras was elected Speaker for a second time. In the same year, Papandreou was indicted by Parliament in connection with the US$200 million Bank of Crete embezzlement scandal. He was accused of helping the embezzlement by ordering state corporations to transfer their holdings to the Bank of Crete where the interest was allegedly skimmed off to benefit PASOK.

The June 1989 Greek legislative election which followed the scandal was inconclusive. New Democracy came first with 145 MPs and PASOK second with only 125, Alevras among them. Neither was enough to form a government by itself. New Democracy formed an alliance with third Party Coalition of the Left and Progress. Their alliance formed a government under Tzannis Tzannetakis.

Synaspismos withdrew its support of the new government only months later. The resulting November 1989 Greek legislative election was again inconclusive. New Democracy came first with 148 MPs and PASOK second with 128, Alevras among them. While each had won 3 more MPs that in the previous election, again none of the two could form a government alone.

The

Constantine Mitsotakis
.

The Mitsotakis government remained in office for about three years. The heightened public irritation over the Macedonia issue with the neighbouring

Republic of Macedonia caused several ND parliament members, led by Antonis Samaras, to withdraw their support from Mitsotakis' government and form a new political party, Political Spring (Politiki Anoiksi). With not enough MPs to remain in office, the New Democracy government organized the 1993 Greek legislative election
.

PASOK won the elections with 170 MPs and New Democracy came second with only 111. Andreas Papandreou became Prime Minister again. Alevras was elected MP for the tenth and last time.

He died due to bronchopneumonia at 4 am, on April 6, 1995, following a three-day stay in Hygea Hospital's ICU.[2] He had a state funeral, with honors equivalent to an incumbent prime minister.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Obituary:Yannis Alevras. May 18, 1995. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Epochi, rizospastis gr | Synchroni (1995-04-07). "rizospastis.gr - Πρόσφερε στον τόπο". ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΗΣ. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
  3. ^ "Αλευράς Ιωάννης". vouliwatch - Δυναμώνουμε τη Δημοκρατία. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
Political offices
Preceded by Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
1981–1989
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Greece
Acting

1985
Succeeded by