New Party (Greece) - Electoral History

Electoral History

The Nationalist Party remained in power most of the time until March 15, 1882. During this 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 Corinth Canal.

In the 1885 general election, voters elected only 56 New Party deputies against 184 deputies for the Nationalist Party led by Theodoros Deligiannis. Despite the mandate, however, the Deligiannis government fell a year later and Trikoupis was again Prime Minister until 1890.

Trikoupis led New Party governments again from June 22, 1892 to May 15, 1893 in which Trikoupis stood before parliament and made the most famous statement of his career: "Regretfully, we are broke". This was due to massive overspending as Greece sought to modernize its military forces on land and sea and each government struggled to outdo the previous. The servicing of foreign loans was suspended, and all non-essential spending was cut.

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

Trikoupis tried to make terms with the creditors of his nation, but he failed there too. The first taxation which he proposed aroused great hostility, and in January, 1895 he resigned. At the 1895 general election, four months later, he and his New Party were defeated and, within a year, the only leader the New Party had ever known was dead.

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Corfiot Georgios Theotokis led the party and was prime minister from April 14, 1899 to November 25, 1901, from June 27, 1903 to July 11, 1903, and from December 19, 1903 to December 29, 1904, before winning the 1905 general election and serving as Prime Minister from December 21, 1905 – July 29, 1909.

Ousted by the military as a result of the Goudi Pronunciamento, Theotokis was the last leader of the New Party. With the arrival of Eleftherios Venizelos in Greece in 1910, most liberal supporters gravitated to the new Komma Fileleftheron.