The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
HISTORY OF ATHENS
The
Mid-War Period
The last Eleftherios Venizelos government
1928-1932
Eleftherios
Venizelos returned to the political scene, after a five-year absence,
and triumphantly carried the day in the election of 19 August
1928. The next four years are a singularity in the continuous
fluidity of governmental groupings of the inter-war period, as
the political balance is preserved until the resignation of the
old statesman in May 1932.
Despite
the impressive moves of Venizelos in the field of foreign policy
(Friendship Agreement with Turkey), his governing in the interior
of the country did not have the expected appeal. At the beginning
of 1930 ideological gaps that had divided the two blocs in earlier
times, have been bridged to a certain extent. What remained alive
though in the conscience of the electoral body was the memory
of the Schism.
By
this term, the process of division of the Greek people, already
from the mid 1910s, into two conflicting blocs (Venizelists and
Royalists), concerning the crucial issue of the participation
of the country in the First World War is described. This conflict
revived in the inter-war period, on new terms. Most important
among these was accumulated emotional charge, being the result
of multiple contentions and mutual distrust.
Undoubtedly,
this last government by Venizelos had significant achievements
to demonstrate in the field of domestic economic reconstruction.
However the world economic debacle of 1929 and the depression
it had brought about, had a lasting and cumulative impact. The
economic policy adopted by the government, under the weight of
the consequences of international depression, caused strong reaction
that led to an internal political polarization. Especially the
charges addressed against the government by the opposition, mainly
by the People's Party, for embezzlement and squandering of public
money contributed to this climate.