British prime minister Winston Churchill and his foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, arrived in Athens to arrange a settlement in the civil war that had developed between Greek factions. A regency government was proclaimed, and Archbishop Damaskinos sworn in as regent after his appointment (Dec. 30) by the Greek king, George II.
The war left Greece a legacy of economic ruin, starvation, and domestic strife. The end of the civil war did not bring political stability. The regent, Archbishop Damaskinos, supported by British occupation authorities, appointed six different ministries during 1945, none of which was able to bridge the gap between moderates and left-wing resistance groups.
The first general election won an overwhelming majority for the royalist Popular Party. The National Liberation Front (Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo, EAM) and other leftist groups refused to participate in the voting.
Several thousand communists, supported by Greece's communist neighbors, engaged in extensive guerrilla activities that soon developed into a regular civil war.
