Liberal Party (Greece)

Liberal Party Κόμμα Φιλελευθέρων
Founder	Eleftherios Venizelos
Founded	22 August 1910
Dissolved	1961
Preceded by	New Party
Merged into	Center Union
Ideology	Liberalism (Imperialist) National liberalism Greek nationalism Republicanism Venizelism
Political position	Centre
Colours	Orange
Election symbol
Κ.Φ.
Politics of Greece Political parties Elections

The Liberal Party (Greek: Κόμμα Φιλελευθέρων, [ˈkoma filelefˈθeɾon], literally "Party of Liberals"), also the National Progressive Centre Union since 1952, was a major political party in Greece during the early-to-mid 20th century. It was founded in August 1910 by Eleftherios Venizelos and went on to dominate Greek politics for a considerable number of years until its decline following the Second World War. Among its most well-known members, apart from Venizelos, were Alexandros Papanastasiou, Nikolaos Plastiras, Georgios Papandreou and Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

Representing the centrist elements of Greek society, and supported by the middle class and the populations of the so-called New Lands (lands acquired by Greece following the Balkan Wars and World War I), its main competitor was the People's Party. Increasingly the Liberal Party became associated with anti-monarchism and during the 1920s the Liberals established a republic which they led for most of its short-lived existence. By the 1950s, the Liberal Party had lost much of its support and it was eventually merged into the Centre Union, which went on to win the 1963 and 1964 elections. Throughout its existence, the Liberal Party sought to hinder the rise of the Communist Party of Greece which was the only real opposition to the Liberals on their most important electoral basis (the refugees of the New Lands), sometimes with the use of anti-communist legislation.

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