Acceso usuarios
Christos Papastylianos
On the night of 14 August 1909 a ‘putsch’ of the military garrisonstationed in Athens, led to some unexpected developments thatupended the political landscape in Greece, ultimately resulting inan unconventional revision of the Greek Constitution of 1864. Therebellion of the garrison was peaceful and gradually allinstitutions gave in to the demands of the military. The militarydid not formally take over the government but were neverthelessable to impose their agenda, since between August 1909 andJanuary 1910 the Greek Parliament enacted no less than 169 bills,which reflected the demands of the Military League. Yet theinterplay between the crown, the traditional political parties andthe Military League resulted in deadlock, with none of theseactors able to dominate the others and tensions between themrunning high. Finally, in January 1910, the crown, the MilitaryLeague and the political parties agreed to revise the GreekConstitution. The founding act of the Greek Constitution of 1911was initially supposed to be an amendment of the formerconstitution of 1864. From a formal point of view, however, theamendment rules of the previous constitution were totallyignored. The founding act of the new constitution was thus acomplete break from the previous constitutional order, despitebeing dubbed an ‘amendment’. Such a rupture was madepossible thanks to popular mobilization, the elections whichprofoundly changed the political landscape, and charismaticleadership
