Greek constitutional amendment of 1986

The Greek Constitutional amendment of 1986 was proposed to limit the powers of the President of the Republic. It was a political gamble by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who suddenly withdrew his backing for Konstantinos Karamanlis' second term and instead promoted his own choice, Christos Sartzetakis. At the same time, Papandreou announced a constitutional revision to remove the powers of the president that acted as checks and balances against an already dominant office of the prime minister.

Eleven articles were amended, primarily targeting the responsibilities of the President of the Republic, transposing the text of the Constitution into demotic Greek, and the removal of the secret ballot for the presidential elections. 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 from the unconstitutional procedures in electing Sartzetakis, as later court rulings concluded, the revised Constitution of 1975/1986 was accepted by all political powers after the polarized 1985 Greek parliamentary election.