Proclamation of the 4th of August régime
Taken from Ioannis Metaxas’ diary. It concerns the official proclamation of the Regime of the Fourth of August 1936
To the Greek People,
While the Parliament elected after the long domestic adventures of the Nation in January 1936, in order to redress domestic peace and order, proved itself right from the beginning incapable in this and in providing a Government to the country, and this incapacity proved later and even recently due to incurable party conflicts and personal contentions, that little interested the vast mass of the working people, Communism taking advantage of the circumstances and of the support given to it by different political groups raised its head impertinently, seriously threatening the social status of Greece…
My Government, above any party, having been summoned to power in April of this year and detecting right from the beginning the risks that the Greek society was taking and determined right from the beginning to take all measures… aiming at the moral and material improvement of all society and especially of farmers, workers and the poorer in general classes…
I appeal to the full and undivided contribution of all Greeks, who believe that our national traditions and our Greek culture must remain intact…
For this I ask from all full discipline to the State, essential for the salvation of Greek society without which discipline there cannot be real freedom. I also have to categorically declare that I am determined to exterminate by the harshest way any opposition to this national task of national regeneration.
Athens 4 August 1936
The President of the Government Ioannis Metaxas
The text is published in Ioannis Metaxas: To prosopiko tou imerologio edited by L. Metaxa (Athens, 1970)
Added on August 22nd, 2006 under Speeches.