Fulfilling his vow to re-enter politics , he becomes the leader of a small socialist party whose aim is to unite all the splinter groups of the noncommunist left . He is denied admission to the Academy of Athens by two votes . The government sends him on a fact-finding mission to Crete to verify the German atrocities there . In November he marries his longtime companion Eleni Samiou and is sworn in as Minister without Portfolio in the Sofoulis coalition government .