Political Life
Rallis was first elected to the Greek Parliament as a member of the People's Party in 1950, and was first appointed a minister in 1954 in the government of Alexander Papagos. He joined Constantine Karamanlis when he formed the National Radical Union and was a minister in the Karamanlis administrations until 1963.
After the military coup of 1967, Rallis was arrested and sent into exile on the island of Kasos when he said that democracy should be restored. He was later allowed to leave the country and stayed in exile until the restoration of democracy in 1974.
In 1974, Rallis returned to Greece and became Education Minister. He oversaw the educational reform, the institution of the Demotic Greek as the formal language in schools, and the reform of the school curricula. He became Foreign Minister in 1978, became the first Greek Foreign Minister to visit the Soviet Union, worked to restore relations with Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and negotiated Greece's accession to the EEC.
When Karamanlis retired in 1980, Rallis was elected leader of the New Democracy party and succeeded Karamanlis as Prime Minister. During his tenure Greece rejoined the military wing of NATO. The following year, however, he was defeated at elections by Andreas Papandreou's PASOK party, and resigned as party leader. Later he had disagreements with his successor as leader, Constantine Mitsotakis, and sat for a time as an independent MP. He retired shortly thereafter. During his retirement, Rallis established and cultivated organically-farmed vineyards and olive groves at his family estate on Corfu.
Although Rallis became Prime Minister at a time when the fortunes of his party were in decline, he remained a popular figure because of his well-liked personal attributes of mildness, modesty and straightforwardness. A wealthy patrician by birth, he always made a point of living modestly, walking to work (even as a Prime Minister, much to the frustration of his security detail), and taking the time to greet and talk with those he met on the street. He died of heart failure at his home on 15 March 2006. He is survived by his wife, Lena Rallis (née Voultsou) and their two daughters, Zaira Papaligouras and Joanna Farmakidis.
Read more about this topic: Georgios Rallis
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