Charilaos Florakis

Charilaos Florakis (1914-2005) (Greek: Χαρίλαος Φλωράκης also Harilaos Florakis) was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).

Related Topics:
Greek - Communist - KKE

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Florakis was born on 20 July 1914 in the Paliozoglopi village, located near Agrafa in the Itamos municipality, prefecture of Karditsa, Greece. He joined the Greek Communist Party or KKE, in 1941. A partisan during the resistance to the Nazi occupation in World War Two, Florakis was on the losing side of the Greek Civil War and subsequently left the country.

Related Topics:
20 July - 1914 - Paliozoglopi - Agrafa - Itamos - Prefecture - Karditsa - Greece - Greek Communist Party - 1941 - World War Two - Greek Civil War

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On his return to Greece in 1954 he was arrested. During his life he spent 18 years in detention or jail - including being put in internal exile by the Greek colonels at the start of the 1967-74 military dictatorship.

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First elected to parliament in 1974, Florakis led KKE as its general secretary from 1972 until 1989, when, though still fit for the job, he announced his decision to step down from the party's top post and proposed Grigoris Farakos as his successor.

Related Topics:
1974 - Grigoris Farakos

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Florakis did not retire from politics, however. In the same year he retired from the leadership of the KKE, he was approved as the president of the newly-founded Synaspismos or Coalition of the Left party. The Left Coalition was an attempt to reconcile Greece's two main communist factions, which arose in 1968 out of the Moscow-led invasion of Czechoslovakia that crushed the Prague Spring. That show of brute strength led many Greek communists to break with the Moscow-oriented KKE and to follow the nascent Eurocommunist path, which favoured national agendas and a more democratic road to socialism.

Related Topics:
Coalition of the Left - Czechoslovakia - Prague Spring - Eurocommunist

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The Left Coalition was created partly at the instigation of Florakis, and drew members from both the KKE and the Euro-communists. It also became an umbrella for other leftist groups and disaffected supporters of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Andreas Papandreou, which lost a general election in 1989.

Related Topics:
Panhellenic Socialist Movement - Andreas Papandreou - 1989

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In 1991, as it became increasingly clear that Soviet communism would not last, a rift arose within the KKE between those who supported continuing efforts towards a reconciliation with the Euro-communists through the Left Coalition, and traditionalists who felt that communism was threatened internationally and favoured a return to ideological roots. Florakis sided with the latter and at the 13th KKE conference in early 1991 - even before the fall of Mikhail Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union - the party officially withdrew all support from the Left Coalition and Florakis was elected honorary president of the KKE.

Related Topics:
Mikhail Gorbachev - Soviet Union

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Florakis died of heart failure at his home in Athens on 22 May 2005. Florakis' body lay in state at the KKE headquarters in Perissos on May 24-25 where thousands of party members and sympathisers queued to pay their respects. Party leader Aleka Papariga addressed a civil funeral on the evening of May 25 which was attended by Greece's President Karolos Papoulias, prime minister Costas Karamanlis, parliament speaker Anna Benaki-Psarouda, opposition Pasok party leader George Papandreou, Left Coalition leader Alekos Alavanos, Cyprus communist AKEL party leader and Cyprus parliament speaker Dimitris Christofias, many ministers and MPs and other dignitaries. He was laid to rest on May 26 at the Agios Ilias cemetery in his native village.

Related Topics:
Athens - 22 May - 2005 - Perissos - Aleka Papariga - Karolos Papoulias - Costas Karamanlis - Anna Benaki-Psarouda - George Papandreou - Alekos Alavanos - AKEL - Dimitris Christofias

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