Georgios Kartalis

Georgios Kartalis (Greek: Γεώργιος Καρτάλης, 1908–1957) was a Greek politician.

Kartalis was born in Athens to a distinguished family from Volos. He went to school in Geneva and enrolled in the ETH Zürich, only to change after the first year to Economics at the University of Munich and the University of Leipzig. He continued his studies by taking courses in Economy at the London School of Economics (1930–1932) and the University of Kiel (1932–1933).

Kartalis returned to Greece in 1933 in order to take up the family's role in the local politics of Volos. He stood unsuccessfully for the city's mayor in 1933, but in the June 1935 elections he was elected as an MP in the People's Party ticket. His knowledge of economy and finance led to his immediate appointment General Secretary in the Economics Ministry in the government of Panagis Tsaldaris, and after the royalist October coup of General Georgios Kondylis he was named Labour Minister.

The imposition of the dictatorial Metaxas Regime on 4 August 1936 marked a profound shift in Kartalis' political views: whereas his family had traditionally been conservative monarchists, and Kartalis himself had both campaigned with the royalist People's Party, which had never accepted the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935), and even held a post in Kondylis' government, which had restored the monarchy, Kartalis now became a convinced republican and was involved in a number of anti-regime initiatives.

On the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War on 28 October 1940, Kartalis volunteered for the front. In April/May 1941 however, the German army overran Greece, placing the country under a brutal triple occupation. The first resistance groups began to appear in the summer and autumn of 1941, although the armed resistance movement would not begin until a year later. From October 1941, Kartalis began to meet with several Venizelist and republican Army colonels such as Evripidis Bakirtzis with the view of forming a republican-oriented resistance group. Finally, with the cooperation of Colonel Dimitrios Psarros, the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) movement was founded in early autumn 1942. EKKA aspired to a purely republican regime after the war, including vaguely socialist ideas such as a "socialization" of industry.

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