Constantine II, younger brother Queen Sofia and the last king GreeceHe passed away this Tuesday at the age of 82. At a private clinic in Athens almost ten years after returning to his hometown after 46 years of exile.
Constantine II and his wife, Ana María, were expelled from the country after the overthrow of the Coroneles Junta in 1974. short reign of seven yearsand just They returned to Greece in 2013.
This controversial initiatives The decisions he made during his reign decisively contributed to the generation of citizen rejection that led to the proclamation of the republic a few months after the dictatorship of the colonel was overthrown. In 1974, a referendum was held in which 69.2% of the people chose the republic.
When Constantino succeeded his father in March 1964 at the age of 24, he was already very popular. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, he won the first gold medal for Greece since 1912 – the Dragon class – in the sailing competition. Six months after the coronation, in September 1964, hundreds of thousands of Greeks from all over the world arrived in Athens. Queen of Denmark II. country to attend the wedding of Margrethe’s younger sister, 18-year-old Princess Anne-Marie.
Shortly after, in the summer of 1965, thousands of citizens took to the streets across the country, this time against the monarchy, to protest the dismissal of the centrist prime minister, Georgios Papandreou. A year ago, Papandreou declared Greece a nation fifteen years after the end of human rights abuses and the end of the civil war. modern democracy.
Political instability lasted for nearly two years and Colonels’ coupon April 21, 1967. Constantino’s inconsistent response to the coup leaders fueled popular anger. First, it recognized the putschists’ government in a way that eight months later, with little preparation, it would try to overthrow the putschists and refrain from any criticism of them from then until the fall of the dictatorship.
After the failed attempt to end the junta He settled in Rome with Ana María and her two eldest children. Later, the royal family settled in London, where their three youngest children were born.
Constantine never recognized the result of the referendum that proclaimed the Third Greek Republic in 1974; this was a condition imposed on him by the Greek state to allow him to return to his homeland. Also in 1994 the socialist government of Andreas Papandreou withdrew his Greek citizenship royal family and expropriated its assets. In 2002, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Greek State to pay him 12 million euros in compensation for the seized assets.
King deposed until 2010 occasionally visited Greecealways as a guest on private yachts owned by Greek owners, without being seen in public.
In August 2010, their third son, Nicolás, despite being born in exile, decided to get married on the island of Spetses in a ceremony attended by representatives of all royal houses in Europe. After his marriage, Nicholas settled in Athens with his wife Tatiana.
In 2014, Constantine sold his house in London for 11 million euros and settled in Porto Jeli, a holiday resort for many Greek ship owners, and stayed here this year due to his illness. sensitive state of healthchose to move to Athens to be closer to hospitals. His return to Greece at a time when society was going through the worst of the economic crisis was almost unnoticed.