The constitutional issue

Another issue, this time of a constitutional nature, became a bone of contention for the Greek political leadership during the 1943-44 period. The place of monarchy in postwar Greece became the symbolic battlefield for the ideological conflict within the Greek political leadership.

Undoubtedly, this debate for the form of state was not a unique phenomenon in the political history of Greece: the split between the pro- and anti-royalist sections of the Greek population constituted one of the oldest political-ideological conflicts in modern Greek politics. The 1940-41 war had only temporarily overshadowed this problem, given the unanimous agreement among the constitutional and political (including the KKE) leadership of the country on the need to fight until the end.

However, with the cessation of hostilities in the Balkans and the occupation of the country, the debate for the future of postwar Greece once more brought the issue of monarchy to the surface. For many Greeks, politicians or not, the role of George II in the imposition of, and support for, the Metaxas dictatorship was a sufficient reason to justify the abolition of the institution of monarchy in the postwar era.