Karamanlis, an X-ray of a career

By Nikos Vatopoulos, KATHIMERINI 28/04/2012 A biography that is a pleasure to read and offers a wealth of information as well as inspiration for further reading, is the work of the academic Konstantinos Svolopoulos, who has published his study on Konstantinos Karamanlis in Greek. It is a formidable challenge to present a political biography of a man of K. Karamanlis’s stature in just 250 pages, but it is precisely this density of expression that lends the reading vigour and intensity.It is a classic biography, that is to say, one that begins with his birth and ends with his death. If anything characterises historian Konstantinos Svolopoulos’s work above all else, it is his adoption of scientific methodology, which excludes the mediation of hindsight and adheres to the narrative of historical time.Of course, Konstantinos Svolopoulos is a man who knew Karamanlis personally and is himself the founder and, since then, general director of the Konstantinos Karamanlis Foundation. The reader can detect between the lines a certain ‘warmth’ of familiarity with the man and an understanding of his environment. However, one cannot say that there is any subjectivity. What is of particular interest is the emphasis K. Svolopoulos places on the wider context.I particularly liked the many references to the Macedonian issue, which is also linked to Karamanlis’s childhood experiences (let us not forget that when he was born, in 1907, Macedonia still belonged to the Ottoman Empire), his early years in Athens in the 1930s as a young lawyer, the analysis of his character, his asceticism and his obsession with ideals, his need to serve, his belief in political stability, and his ambition in the 1950s to lift Greece out of underdevelopment and anchor it to Western Europe. The narrative reaches its conclusion. It is interesting that K. Svolopoulos emphasises Karamanlis’s study of the ancient Greeks, from whom he was influenced on fundamental issues of political philosophy. This occurred mainly after 1963 and during his years in Paris. Karamanlis believed that Greece might not be able to compare with the wealthy countries in terms of economic size, but that it was fully competitive in terms of its culture. It is telling that, during Karamanlis’s first term, Pikionis was commissioned to redesign the area around the Acropolis. The transition to democracy, accession to the then EEC and the period of the presidency are also analysed, as are relations with A. Papandreou. One has everything to gain from reading this book. Konstantinos Svolopoulos, ‘Karamanlis, 1907–1998. A Political Biography’