Almost a month and a half has passed since the founding of ERE by Konstantinos Karamanlis, and the party emerges victorious in the elections on February 19, 1956, taking 165 seats against 132 for the Democratic Union. EPE received 47.38% of the vote, and the Democratic Union – 48.15%. However, due to the majoritarian electoral system, ERE won more seats, leading many to talk about electoral fraud. As Kathimerini reported on February 24, Karamanlis, answering questions from foreign journalists, “indignantly rejected the opposition’s accusations of fraud and blackmailing public opinion, because, as he pointed out, these accusations cast a shadow on the image of the country and because he believes that nowhere such fair, civilized and impartial elections were held.”

Responding to the accusations, he said that during his campaign tours “they paid for the cost of gasoline for his car and train tickets themselves.”

The first ERE government was a mix of Hellenic Alarm radicals, moderate conservatives and liberals. The appointment of the first female minister, Linas Tsaldari, to the Ministry of Social Affairs was also groundbreaking. His dynamic development policy with a focus on electrification, infrastructure, industrialization and increasing the competitiveness of Greek exports, as well as his focus on the Cyprus issue, created the conditions for the dominance of the centre-right political space in the country for the next decade.