Panagis Tsaldaris - Last Years (1935-1936)

Last Years (1935-1936)

The parties of the Opposition, including the Liberal Party, did not participate in the elections of 1935, protesting the electoral law, passed by Tsaldaris' government, and for the special courts, which had already, sentenced to death two prominent Liberal army officers, the Generals Anastasios Papoulas and Miltiadis Koimisis. As a result, the People's Party won a landslide victory. Tsaldaris and his allies won all but six seats in parliament.

By nearly all accounts, the 1935 elections all but assured the restoration of the monarchy. Tsaldaris himself strongly favoured the return of George II, but he wanted to ensure legitimacy by conducting a plebiscite first. However, several right-wing elements, including a significant faction of Tsaldaris' own party, demanded the return the monarchy without the formality of a referendum. During the electoral campaign, the Union of Royalists, an ephemeral alliance formed by Ioannis Metaxas, Ioannis Rallis and Georgios Stratos, had already expressly demanded the immediate return of the former King.

In the National Assembly, Tsaldaris insisted on a referendum. This angered those who wanted to dispense with such formalities, most importantly his own War Minister, Georgios Kondylis, a former Venizelist.

On October 10, 1935, Kondylis and the commanders of the Armed Forces (Alexandros Papagos was among them) called on Tsaldaris and demanded his resignation. With no other choice, Tsaldaris complied. Kondylis took over the premiership, and later that day forced President Alexandros Zaimis to resign. Kondylis abolished the republic, declared himself Regent and staged a plebiscite on November 11 for the return of the monarchy. Official results showed 98 percent of the voters supported the restoration of the monarchy--an implausibly high total that could have only been obtained through fraud.

After these dramatic events, the People's Party split and Ioannis Theotokis formed the National People's Party. In the elections of 1935 the People's Party and the Liberal Party had been almost evenly matched. During the post-election era, Tsaldaris participated with passion in the Parliament and held some of the best and most important speeches of his political career. Nevertheless, his bad health betrayed him and he did not manage to fulfill his political dreams.

He died in Athens on 17 May 1936. Before his death, he had voted against the first government of Ioannis Metaxas, the forerunner of the following dictatorship.