Melina Mercouri

the movie star who risked everything to fight the Greek junta

Melina Mercouri was a famous actress who starred on Broadway, when on 21 April 1967 a coup took place in her home country, Greece. A group of colonels overthrew the government, leading to a right-wing military dictatorship: the Greek junta, characterised by anti-communism and restrictions of civil liberties. Political opponents were imprisoned, tortured or sent to prison islands. Mercouri immediately joined the struggle against the dictatorship. She used her fame all over the world to inform the public of what was happening in Greece. She campaigned for the international isolation and fall of the colonels. With her activism, she put her life and career at risk.

Melina Mercouri was one of the most  severe and most visible critics of the junta. The regime confiscated her property and stripped her of her Greek citizenship. There were terrorist attacks against her and an assassination attempt in Genoa. Still, she continued to fight, using speeches, interviews, recordings, marches, concerts and hunger strikes. When the regime fell in 1976, she returned to Greece, founded the socialist party Pasok, and became the first female minister of Culture a few years later.

The status quo in Melina Mercouri’s time:

People with left-wing sympathies were arrested by the regime. Some were killed, some were sent to prison islands.

The PRESENT