Manolis Glezos

Biography

Manolis Glezos (Greek: Μανώλης Γλέζος; 9 September 1922 – 30 March 2020) was a Greek left-wing politician, journalist, author, and guerrilla fighter most famous for his role in the Greek Resistance during World War II. After the end of the war, Glezos became a journalist and edited the left-wing newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi. As a politician, he was elected to the European Parliament twice (1984 and 2014) and served as a Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) at various points from 1951 to 2014, representing three constituencies. He also published six books.

During the Axis occupation of Greece, he and Lakis Santas took down the flag of Nazi Germany from the Acropolis. After the end of Axis occupation, his left-wing political beliefs and activism in the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) led to him being sentenced to death three times; his imprisonments and legal troubles were often the topic of international interest, until his permanent release in 1971 ended over 15 years of non-continuous imprisonment and exile. He was originally a member of the Communist Party of Greece

and the United Democratic Left (EDA), but left the former in 1968 after the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

After the restoration of democracy in 1974, Glezos resumed duties as a politician, becoming an MP for various left-wing parties, and most prominently was the leader of EDA from 1981 to 1989. From 1987 to 2012, he was elected to various local government posts throughout Greece and was a founding member of Synaspismos, before returning as an MP in the May and June 2012 elections. In 2014, at the age of 91 (as a candidate for Syriza), he became a Member of the European Parliament for the second time, making him the oldest-ever member of the European Parliament, and the most voted-for candidate in Greece, but resigned in 2015 and split from Syriza amidst negotiations for the third bailout programme during the Greek debt crisis to form Popular Unity (LAE), which unsuccessfully contested the September 2015 elections.

Glezos is often regarded as an icon of the Greek Resistance and was the recipient of various international awards throughout his seven-decade long political career. He was nicknamed "The First Partisan", after Charles de Gaulle had dubbed him "The first partisan of Europe".