Konstantinos Tsaldaris

Who was Konstantinos Tsaldaris?

Konstantinos Tsaldaris was a Greek politician and twice Prime Minister of Greece.

Tsaldaris was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He studied law at the University of Athens as well as Berlin, London and Florence. He became a prefectural politician from 1915 to 1917.

In 1926, he was elected as a deputy for the first time in the Argolidocorinthia prefecture with the Freethinkers' Party of Ioannis Metaxas. In 1928, he became a member of the People's Party, the leader of which was his uncle Panagis Tsaldaris. He entered Panagis Tsaldaris' second government as Vice Minister of Transportation from 1933 to 1935, and continued as Under-Secretary to the Prime Minister. After the death of Panagis Tsaldaris in 1936, he became a member of the administrative commission of the People's Party, which was however soon dissolved under the dictatorship of Metaxas.

After Liberation in 1944, he was recognized as the leader of the reborn People's Party, and won in the controversial 1946 elections as leader of the right-wing "United Patriotic Party" coalition and became prime minister of Greece from April 1946 through January 1947. His government carried out the plebiscite on the return of the monarchy in August 1946.