Greece 1975. The country began the year as a republic, three weeks earlier, in the referendum on 8 December 1974, after the citizens decided on the end of the monarchy.

A decade earlier, in 1964, when King Paul I died, his son Constantine took the throne at the age of 23.
But Greece was already very politically divided, and the young king did not take any steps to improve the situation. On the contrary, the relationship with the Prime Minister deteriorated and, furthermore, attempted to appoint a new government without holding elections.

In this context of crisis, in 1967, several army officers struck the coup d ' état and with it began the violent dictatorship of the Colonels. Initially, Constantine seemed to coincide with the new leaders, but a plot was prepared to recover the power that the colonels did not give him. He failed in the attempt and had to flee to Italy.

When the Colonel Dictatorship fell in 1974, Constantine seemed to put the crown back on. Until the holding of the elections, the interim civilian government that took power rejected the constitution of the military regime and restored the 1952 regime, according to which Greece was a constitutional monarchy.

After the elections, however, the newly elected Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis called for a referendum to decide on the future of the monarchy. Karamanlis was the leader of the monarchic conservative party and was convinced that the citizens would vote in favour of the monarchy. The king was also optimistic, taking into account what the BBC said in an interview in 1973: “The king may have to live in exile, but no one can dismiss them. The king is always king. I am absolutely convinced that when my people can express themselves freely, the vast majority will want me to return.” In the referendum on 8 December, 69.11 per cent of the population told him not to return.