Three-day conference on ‘50 Years of the Metapolitefsi’ starts Thursday

A three-day conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the restoration of Greek democracy – a period known as the Metapolitefsi – will get underway on Thursday at the National Gallery in Athens.

Titled “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi,” the conference is organized by Kathimerini newspaper, the National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET), Delphi Economic Forum, and the Hellenic Observatory at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

The anniversary of that fateful summer of 1974 and the restoration of democracy in Greece offers an excellent opportunity for leading politicians, academics, experts and journalists to reflect, take stock and assess where the country finds itself five decades later.

Participating in discussions that will take a historical review and offer reflections on the country’s future will be President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and former prime ministers George Papandreou, Lucas Papademos, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Antonis Samaras and Alexis Tsipras.

British historian Mark Mazower of Columbia University will deliver the keynote speech, which will offer insights into how the Metapolitefsi period aligns with the bicentenary of the modern Greek state.

Various politicians and officials who have played pivotal roles in critical areas will be invited to respond to questions from experts and journalists on separate panels.

Toward the end of the conference, a debate will address the most important reforms still pending in the country. This discussion will feature Yannis Stournaras, the governor of the Bank of Greece; Stathis Kalyvas, Gladstone Professor of Government at Oxford University; Hugo Dixon, commentator-at-large for Reuters; Kevin Featherstone, LSE professor and director of the Hellenic Observatory; Christina Koulouri, professor of modern and contemporary history at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens; and George Pagoulatos, Greece’s ambassador to the OECD and professor of European politics and economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business.

The organizing committee is made up of Mazower, Featherstone, as well as Kostas Kostis, director of MIET and professor of economics and social history at the University of Athens, Elaine Papoulias, executive director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) at Harvard University, Symeon Tsomokos, founder of Delphi Economic Forum, and Alexis Papachelas, executive director of Kathimerini newspaper.

The full program is available here.