New Party (Greece, 1873)

During the first years of the reign of King George I, the political life of the country did not differ considerably from the previous Othonian period.

Until the 1870s, loose parties continued to prevail without principles or a political program, instead based they were organized around the personality of a more or less charismatic leader.

A supporter of the British two-party parliamentary system; in 1873, he created the New Party (Neoteristiko Komma) according to the model of western democracies.

After Trikoupis published his critical diatribe in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame" and clearly pointed the finger at royal favoritism in the selection of prime ministers, he was, after a brief time in prison, asked to form a government to lead the country into the 1875 general election.

The New Party was organized around the principles of modernization (defined as emulating Western European culture) of the political, social and economic life of the country.

Specifically, the priority of the New Party was the development of the private economic sphere and the consequent restriction of state intervention in the economy.

This was due to massive overspending as Greece sought to modernize its military forces on land and sea and each government struggled to outdo the previous.