George Rallis

George Rallis (Greek form Giorgios or Georgios Rallis) (born 26 December 1918), Greek politician, was Prime Minister of Greece from 1980 to 1981.

Rallis was born in Athens and studied law and political sciences at the University of Athens. He is descended from an old Greek political family. Before Greek independence, Alexander Rallis was a prominent Phanariote (Greek from Constantinople). In 1849 his son George Rallis became Chief Justice of the Greek Supreme Court.

Demitrios Rallis (1844-1921), grandfather of the current George Rallis, was five times Prime Minister of Greece, for short periods in 1897, 1903, 1905, 1909 and 1921. His son, Ioannis or John Rallis (1878-1946), was Prime Minister from 1943 to 1944, during the German occupation. After the liberation of Greece he was sentenced to life in prison for collaboration and died in prison in 1946.

George Rallis was first elected to the Greek Parliament as a member of the Popular Party in 1950, and was first appointed a minister in 1954 in the government of Alexander Papagos. He joined Constantine Caramanlis when he formed the National Radical Union and was a minister in Caramanlis's governments until 1963.

After the military coup of 1967 Rallis was arrested and sent into exile on the island of Kasos when he said that democracy should be restored. He was later allowed to leave the country and stayed in exile until the restoration of democracy in 1974.

In 1974 Rallis returned to Greece and became Foreign Minister in Caramanlis's New Democracy party government. During this period he became the first Greek Foreign Minister to visit the Soviet Union, worked to restore relations with Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and negotiated Greece's accession to the EEC.

When Caramanlis retired in 1980, Rallis was elected leader of New Democracy and succeeded Caramanlis as Prime Minister. Under his leadership Greece rejoined the military wing of NATO. The following year, however, he was defeated at elections by Andreas Papandreou's PASOK party, and resigned as party leader. Later he quarrelled with his successor as leader, Constantine Mitsotakis, and sat for a time as an independent MP.