only three months in office, when the Press published a letter of him during the war, proposing the German intervention to stop the Greco-Italian war. In 1949, after the end of the Greek Civil War, Plastiras founded a new party, the National Progressive Centre Union (Εθνική Προοδευτική Ένωση Κέντρου, EPEK), forming a following of disappointed Liberals and left-leaning democrats. He preached a message of national reconciliation, which put him in conflict with the conservative establishment which sought to punish those who had fought to establish a communist government. Together with Sofoklis Venizelos and George Papandreou, Plastiras formed a coalition government in 1950, which fell, however, when his partners retired. In the September 1951 elections, EPEK emerged as the strongest of the centrist parties. Plastiras formed a coalition government with Sofoklis Venizelos' Liberals, and attempted to address the great problems of the country. His government initiated the economic recovery and the reconstruction of Greece. A monument to this is the construction of the dam at the Tavropos (Megdovas) River to form a lake, a program that he initiated. The lake and dam, both formerly named Tavropos, now bear his name. His policy of conciliation, however, was bitterly assailed from the right, distrusted from the left, and undermined even by members of his own cabinet. A defining moment of his government was the conviction and execution of Nikos Belogiannis in March 1952 despite international protest. After losing the elections of November 1952, his political career, and with it the liberal 'Centrist Intermission', came to an end. He died in poverty in 1953 in Athens. References External links 1883 births 1953 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Greece People from Karditsa National Progressive Centre Union politicians Prime Ministers of Greece Greek MPs 1950–1951 Greek MPs 1951–1952 Hellenic Army generals Greek revolutionaries Republicanism in Greece Greek military personnel of the Balkan Wars Greek military personnel of World War I Greek military personnel of the Russian Civil War People of the Russian Civil War Greek military personnel of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) Greek exiles People sentenced to death in absentia 1950s in Greek politics