Konstantinos Demertzis

Konstantinos Demertzis (; January 12, 1876 – April 13, 1936) was a Greek academic and politician. He was the 49th Prime Minister of Greece from November 1935 to April 1936. Demertzis died during his mandate, of a heart attack, on April 13, 1936. He then went to Munich where he stayed for three years. Returning to Athens, he started teaching as professor of law. In 1910, he was elected for the first time as a Member of Parliament with the Liberal Party in the parliamentary elections which were held on November 28, 1910, contributing the most due to his knowledge to the revision of the Constitution in 1911. Having a good command of the judiciary, he was in favor of suspending the judges for life.

Political career

First period of political action (1912–1928) In the elections on March 11, 1912, he was elected a member of parliament and in 1913 he succeeded Nikolaos Stratos in the Ministry of Marines of the Venizelos government, where he remained for about a year. However, he also became Minister of the Navy a second time during the government of Alexandros Zaimis in 1917.

In 1924, together with other politicians of the time, he founded the "Unionist Progressive Party", in which he was declared leader. The life of this party was short-lived.

General Theodoros Pangalos assumed power in June 1925, and dissolved Parliament in September of the same year. A few months later, in March 1926, after the resignation of the President of the Republic, Pavlos Kountouriotis, who was protesting the arbitrariness of the Pangalos government, Demertzis was nominated, by almost all the parties at the time, as a common candidate to succeed him. The democratic parties finally called for abstention, but to no avail, while Demertzis also did not receive support. Pangalos was comfortably elected President of the Republic, receiving 782,589 votes against Demertzis' 56,126. After the fall of the Pangalos dictatorship, in the elections on November 7, 1926, he was elected Member of Parliament for Athens.

In 1928, he assumed the position of professor of family law at the Law School of Athens. From that year until 1935, he remained away from any involvement with politics, limiting himself to his university duties. Thus, on November 30, 1935, he was sworn in as prime minister, keeping the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for himself.