Three-day conference on ‘50 Years of the Metapolitefsi’ – Day 3, Part 1

The final day of the conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the restoration of Greek democracy – a period known as the Metapolitefsi – is under way Saturday at the National Gallery in Athens.

Titled “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi,” the three-day conference is jointly organized by Kathimerini newspaper, the National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET), the Delphi Economic Forum, and the Hellenic Observatory at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

The anniversary of the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974 and the subsequent restoration of democracy in Greece provides an excellent opportunity for leading politicians, academics, experts, and journalists to reflect, take stock, and assess where the country stands five decades later.

Participants in a series of discussions reflecting on the past and future include Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and former prime ministers George Papandreou, Lucas Papademos, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Antonis Samaras, and Alexis Tsipras.

The first part of the third day of the conference will commence with a fireside chat between former prime minister Alexis Tsipras and Kathimerini journalist Xenia Kounalaki at 10.30 a.m.

Later, at 11.15 a.m., the conference will feature a debate on “The Next 50 Years, is Democracy Safe? Is Greece Reformable?” with Yannis Stournaras, Bank of Greece governor; Kevin Featherstone, Professorial Research Fellow and Director of the Observatory in the European Institute at London School of Economics; Stathis Kalyvas, Gladstone Professor of Government and fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University; George Pagoulatos, Ambassador of Greece to the OECD; and Christina Koulouri, historian and rector of the Panteion University for Social and Political Sciences. The debate will be moderated by Hugo Dixon, commentator-at-large for Reuters.

This will be followed by a fireside chat at 1.15 p.m. between President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Elaine Papoulias, executive director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University and Kathimerini journalist Michalis Tsintsinis.

At 2 p.m., the conference will wrap up with closing remarks by Kathimerini Executive Editor Alexis Papahelas; Kostas Kostis, professor of economics and social history at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and director of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation; Mark Mazower, professor of history at Columbia University; Papoulias and Kalyvas. In the chair will be Kathimerini journalist Elias Maglinis.

The full program is available here.