Greek constitutional amendment of 1986

The Greek Constitutional amendment of 1986 was proposed in order to limit the powers of the President of the Republic. It was part of a political gamble by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who suddenly declared not to support Constantine Karamanlis for a second term as President of the Republic, proposed constitutional amendments designed to increase further the power of his position, and effectively removing any checks and balances against the powerful executive branch.

Eleven articles were amended, primarily targeting the responsibilities of the President of the Republic, and a vote was passed transposing the text of the Constitution into demotic Greek. These amendments transformed the liberal democracy of Greece based on the constitution of 1975 into a 'populist democracy' with a majoritarian parliamentary system and a prime minister acting as a "parliamentary autocrat." Despite the political and constitutional crisis that emerged in constitutional procedures in electing Sartzetakis, the revised Constitution of 1975/1986 was accepted by all political powers only after the polarized 1985 Greek parliamentary election.