ABSTRACT
The concept ‘Centre’, meaning a centrist political grouping, began taking shape in Greece at the beginning of the 1950s, immediately after the Civil War. It aimed mainly at distinguishing the centrist forces from the two extremes: the Right and the Left, of which the latter was comprised of the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) and the group originating from the leftist EAM national resistance. The reactionary and conservative forces, which considered the governments of the country almost as their private domain, gathered around the Palace and brought about the clash between Georgios Papandreou and King Constantine, which resulted in the removal of the majority cabinet of Papandreou. Consensus entails the convergence towards a centrist policy, which in substance is the application of social democratic policies to the conditions prevailing in Greece. The bipolarity concept is in conflict with political actuality.
