At about half past eleven on the evening of October 4, 1955, Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos died suddenly. The unpredictable step of King Pavlos changed political events dramatically: he entrusted the formation of the government not to his successor Stephanos Stephanopoulos, appointed by Papagos himself, but to the then Minister of Public Works and Communications Konstantinos Karamanlis.

“The government sworn in tomorrow (today) will appear before parliament next week to request a vote of confidence. The mission of the Government is to resolve pressing national issues and create the necessary conditions for the timely holding of elections,” the adviser promised. Karamanlis, according to the October 6 edition of Kathimerini.

King Paul’s actions were criticized by opposition leaders who spoke of a “royal coup”. It seems that the reasons for this decision were found in the criticality of the environment. On April 1 of the same year, the armed age of EOKA began, and the August London Conference was unable to resolve the Cyprus issue.

In addition, the bloody September events in Constantinople preceded, which brought Greek-Turkish relations to a very critical turn.

As mentioned in the main article of “Kathimerini”, “Vasilei’s initiative to solve the government problem has a great, decisive quality for this time: speed. […] There are twenty-four hours in a day, and every hour has the significance of a century for the fate of the nation. There wasn’t a minute to lose.”

On the other hand, the choice of a minister who showed extensive modernization work should not have surprised anyone: “The king called on a deputy of the majority, a minister who gave tangible examples of tireless activity, bold and happy initiatives, and to this young and full of zeal he entrusted the formation of a government hardly”. Ultimately, the Karamanlis government received a vote of confidence (200 votes in favor) just six days after its formation, securing Konstantinos Karamanlis a leading role in the country’s political affairs.