Georgios Kartalis

From October 1941, Kartalis began to meet with several Venizelist and republican Army colonels such as Evripidis Bakirtzis with the view of forming a republican-oriented resistance group.

Finally, with the cooperation of Colonel Dimitrios Psarros, the National and Social Liberation (EKKA) movement was founded in early autumn 1942.

EKKA aspired to a purely republican regime after the war, including vaguely socialist ideas such as a "socialization" of industry.

Kartalis however participated as EKKA's representative in the Lebanon Conference of May 1944, which led to the creation of a national unity government under George Papandreou.

His tenure in these last posts was of critical importance for the recovery and stabilization of the Greek economy from the devastations of World War II.