April 3, 1958
KARAMANLIS AND CONSPIRATORS (II) – The second part of a speech by Constantine Karamanlis, head of the National Radical Union (ERE), ahead of elections called after a political crisis, which he said had been brought about as the result of a «sinister conspiracy:» «I reacted swiftly and decisively against the conspiracy. I considered it my duty, having been given the people’s mandate, to protect them from scenarios being devised behind their backs and which were foreign to their desires and contrary to their interests. I could, after having thwarted the conspirators’ plans, have remained in power, either on my own, since within two days I had regained the majority, or in an alliance with another party. However, I rejected that solution as I knew that after a while not only the government but the life of the whole country would enter into a phase of corruption and decay. I have always fought against situations created to further various ambitions and interests because, as I have so often said, in the final analysis, these kinds of compromises are at the people’s expense. Instead, I preferred the direct route of renewing the popular mandate.»
