The Socialist Party of Greece was a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The party was formed in 1920, as an anti-Comintern

Comintern

The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

 minority split away at the second congress of the Socialist Labour Party of Greece

Communist Party of Greece

Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece , better known by its acronym, ΚΚΕ , is the oldest party on the Greek political scene.- Foundation :...

. The group that founded the Greek Socialist Party was led by A. Sideris. The party was active in trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s, and in 1931 the leading party member Dimitris Stratis was elected General Secretary of the General Confederation of Greek Workers (G.S.E.E.).

The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International

Labour and Socialist International

The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....

 between 1923 and 1931, and again in 1933.

In 1931 a group broke away from the party and founded the Independent Socialist Party

Independent Socialist Party (Greece)

The Independent Socialist Party was a political party in Greece. The party was formed in 1931, through a split in the Socialist Party of Greece. The party was led by the trade union leader Dimitris Stratis. In 1932, the Independent Socialist Party was dissolved and Stratis returned to the Socialist...

. Stratis was the leader of the splinter party. The Independent Socialist Party was very short-lived, though, and the following year Stratis returned to the Socialist Party and became a member of its Central Committee

Central Committee

Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...

.

During the Second World War, the party launched the Union for People's Democracy (E.L.D.) as a front for resistance

Greek Resistance

The Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...

 activities. E.L.D. was a minor resistance group compared to the communist-led National Liberation Front (E.A.M.). The Socialist Party member Professor Alexandros Svolos

Alexandros Svolos

Alexandros Svolos was a prominent Greek legal expert, who also served as president of the Political Committee of National Liberation, a Resistance-based government during the Axis Occupation of Greece.- Early life :...

 became appointed President in the government

Political Committee of National Liberation

The Political Committee of National Liberation , commonly known as the "Mountain Government" was a communist-dominated government established in Greece in 1944 in opposition to both the collaborationist German-controlled government at Athens and to the royal government-in-exile in Cairo...

 formed by the Greek resistance in 1944.

In February 1949, the Socialist Party broke its links with the Communist Party of Greece. The party contested the 1950 parliamentary elections

Greek legislative election, 1950

The 1950 Greek legislative election was held on 5 March 1950.A total of 44 parties contested 250 seats. rowspan=2 colspan=3 valign=top|Summary of the 5 March 1950 Greek Parliament election results...

, winning eight seats. In the 1952 elections

Greek legislative election, 1952

The Greek legislative election of 16 November 1952 resulted in victory for General Alexander Papagos and the party he had founded the previous year, the Greek Rally party....

, however, it suffered a defeat.

In September 1953 the party merged with the Democratic Party, forming the Democratic Party of Working People. Two months later, socialists founded the Greek Socialist League

Greek Socialist League

The Greek Socialist League was a socialist organization in Greece. The Socialist Party of Greece had merged with the Democratic Party, forming the Democratic Party of Working People, in September 1953. The Socialist League was founded on December 6, 1953, as a platform for socialist politics inside...

as a platform for socialist politics within the new party.