Theodoros Diligiannis

Theodoros Diligiannis was a Greek politician, minister and member of the Greek Parliament, who served as Prime Minister of Greece five times from 1885 until his assassination. He led the Nationalist Party, which, alongside the New Party led by his primary political opponent, Charilaos Trikoupis, formed the two-party system of the time. He was born at Kalavryta in 1826. He studied law in Athens, and in 1843 entered the Ministry of the Interior, of which department he became permanent secretary in 1859. In 1862, on the deposition of King Otto, he became minister for foreign affairs in the provisional government. In 1867, he was Greek Minister at Paris. On his return to Athens he became a member of successive cabinets in various capacities, and rapidly collected a party around him consisting of those who opposed his great rival, Charilaos Trikoupis. He eventually became the leader of the Nationalist Party after Alexandros Koumoundouros. In the so-called Oecumenical Ministry of 1877 he voted for war with Turkey. On that ministry's fall, Diligiannis entered the cabinet of Koumoundouros as minister for foreign affairs. He was a representative of Greece at the Berlin Congress in 1878. From this time forward, and particularly after 1882, when Trikoupis again came into power at the head of a strong party, the duel between these two statesmen was the leading feature of Greek politics. Diligiannis first formed a cabinet in 1885; but his warlike policy, the aim of which was, by threatening Turkey, to force the Great Powers to make concessions in order to avoid the risk of a European war, ended in failure. For the powers, in order to stop his excessive armaments, eventually blockaded the Piraeus and other ports, and this brought about his downfall. He returned to power in 1890, with a radical programme, but his failure to deal with the financial crisis produced a conflict between him and the king, and his disrespectful attitude resulted in his summary dismissal in 1892. Diligiannis evidently expected the public to side with him; but at the elections he was badly beaten. In 1895, Diligiannis experienced yet another comeback. After two years, however, he was dismissed by the king after the country performed poorly in a war with Turkey. The amount of his supporters ebbed and flowed as the politics of Greece remained quite volatile. Amazingly, he returned to the office of prime minister a mere five years later. Greeks who supported Diligiannis’s rival, Trikoupis, frequently criticized Diligiannis for his thirst for war and what they perceived as his mishandling of the economy. These were his most controversial positions. Therefore, it was an even bigger shock when Diligiannis was assassinated as he entered the chambers of the Greek parliament. Stabbed by a man named Antonios Gherakaris, Diligiannis died less than three hours later. Of course, the entire country wanted to know the motive for such a heinous crime.