PASOK Victory of 1981

On 18 October 1981, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK, led by Andreas Papandreou, won a landslide victory in the Greek elections with around 48 percent of the vote, forming the first socialist government in Greek history. Papandreou, son of the former prime minister Georgios Papandreou, had founded PASOK in 1974 after returning from exile. His campaign slogan was Allagi, meaning Change. The victory marked the first peaceful transfer of power from the right to the left in modern Greece, a sign that the country's democracy had matured after the dictatorship and the civil war. PASOK's government introduced major reforms. It created a national health system, reformed family law to give women equal rights, legalized civil marriage, recognized the left-wing resistance against the German occupation, and allowed political refugees from the civil war to return home. It also expanded the welfare state and public sector. However, it relied heavily on public borrowing and spending, and its rule was marked by clientelism and later by scandals. PASOK dominated Greek politics for much of the next three decades.