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Constantine and Ana Maria of Greece, with their children Alexia and Pablo, in Tatoi. GTRES

Constantine found a great political polarization when he reached the throne in 1964. His mistakes and not a few betrayals cost him the scepter.

Constantine of Greece reappears after the news about his delicate health

Between tears and unable to finish the speech: the last appearance of Constantine of Greece

In these times in which the Spanish Crown is the target of the independence parties and left-wing formations that take advantage of the troubled river ... times in which the rumors of plots against the Monarchy and republican plans to try to knock down are triggered to the King ... Don Felipe will have in his head the turbulent episodes that left his uncle Constantine of Greece without a throne .

The 45th anniversary of the referendum for which the republic was established in the Hellenic country has just been completed. Today the brother of Queen Sofia , at 79, resides in her country. Five years ago he ended his long exile, although he remains deprived of his nationality and maintains the battle for the restitution of the assets of the royal family. However, Constantine enjoys a sweet moment watching how the image of the royal family in the country begins to be rehabilitated after several decades of relentless propaganda.

The coming to power in July of the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis has meant a certain oxygen balloon , since situations of certain recognition of the dynasty are taking place. Thus, last November the Minister of Culture opened in Athens an exhibition on a century of Greek fashion accompanied by Queen Ana Maria -one of her dresses is the centerpiece of the show-, something unthinkable so far; and the Government is studying how to condition the complex where the Palace of Tatoi is located - which includes the royal tombs - after the neglect of the successive Executives has left it in a state of ruin.

The attitude of the prime minister is not surprising, since he is the son of the historic leader Constantinos Mitsotakis - he was head of government between 1990 and 1993 - who, at a time when only Constantine's plagues were said, dared to acknowledge that the referendum of 1974 did not have the due guarantees . That plebiscite in which almost 70% of the Greeks rejected the return of the monarch was the icing on some convulsive years in which, among all, including members of the royal family, they demolished the Crown.

He was barely 23 years old when Constantine assumed the throne in March 1964. His father, King Paul , a victim of stomach cancer had just died. The new monarch was as inexperienced as lacking in character. The country lived under a climate of enormous political tension , polarization and great instability due to the high parliamentary fragmentation. Only a few days before the proclamation of Constantine, Georgios Papandreu had taken over as head of a weak, minority government. To top it off, the clash with Constantine was immediate.

Mass marches against the king toured Greece in 1974. GETTY

The antitrust sentiment was already strong among broad social layers. And there were few parties that took advantage of Constantine's weakness to try to deprive the Crown of powers. The 1952 Constitution then governed that, although it enshrined the democratic principle and a system of parliamentary monarchy, it reminded in many respects of the European constitutions of nineteenth-century liberalism in which the Crown and the Army remained the two true focuses of power and freedoms Individuals were severely restricted . All the parties seemed interested in those troubled years in biting the monarchy, including the monarchist conservatives, although they were far from each other's interests. Let us not forget that the constitutional reform proposed by the monarchist Karamanlis in 1963, which deprived the Crown of many powers, did not represent a democratic advance but an authoritarian involution.

With all this background, the criticisms of the much hated Queen Federica , mother of the new sovereign, who had already been put in the pillory during the reign of her husband because their influence was considered perverse were worse . And the truth is that Constantine was quite alone, with counselors who advised him continuously and with little support.

The king would pay dearly for the mistake he made just one year after being crowned, when he starred in a palatial maneuver that led to Papandreu's resignation, following a crisis that revealed how things began to twist in the Army. Constantine, who did not want to limit himself to a ceremonial role, abused his constitutional prerogatives and for two years was completely worn out with a political interventionism that did not nevertheless avoid misgovernment. The parties in Parliament did not help him either, many of them happy that the monarch would bake in his sauce.

The fact is that the resignation of Papandreu , in July 1965, very answered in the streets by strong demonstrations against the king, was followed by almost two years of authentic blockade - Constantine refused to call elections - in which the monarch appointed until five prime ministers who failed to gain support. Politics collapsed and the sovereign was perceived as the great culprit.

In parallel, and in a Cold War context, all kinds of extraparliamentary conspiracies developed. As is known, the one that succeeded, on April 21, 1967, was the coup of the colonels . Constantine's initial support - an episode about which there are still as many gaps and literature as about our 23-F - would cost him the crown. Especially since the United States left him sold in his backlash a few months later.

He would also betray him in 1974, once the dictatorship of the colonels fell, Karamanlis , who had been so close to the king during the years of government in exile. The conservative leader dealt the final stab when he called the referendum for the Greeks to choose a monarchy or republic, after a campaign without the participation of the monarchists. Even so, the result was so devastating that Constantine, from London, accepted resigned that his days as king had ended forever. When everyone, starting with himself, had insisted on tearing down the monarchy, how was it going to stand?

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