Evangelos Venizelos (, ; born 1 January 1957) is a Greek academic and politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Greece and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 25 June 2013 to 27 January 2015. Previously, he was Deputy Prime Minister and

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

from 17 June 2011 to 21 March 2012. He was a member of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the He ...

for the

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

(PASOK) for the first electoral district of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

. He is a Professor of

Constitutional Law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

at the Law School of the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. On 18 March 2012, Venizelos was elected unopposed to replace George Papandreou as PASOK president and led the party in the May 2012 general election as well as the June 2012 general election.

Early life and education

Evangelos Venizelos was born in

on 1 January 1957. He is unrelated to his famous namesake,

Eleftherios Venizelos Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos ( el, Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, translit=Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation move ...

. He is married to Lila A. Bakatselou and has a daughter. He was an undergraduate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from 1974 through 1978 and completed postgraduate studies at Panthéon-Assas University in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 1980, he received his PhD in Law from the

. Besides his mother tongue,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, he speaks

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Early career

Venizelos is the author of a number of books,

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monogra ...

s and papers, including most recently ''Agenda 16'' ( in 2007, a collection of writings about the future of the university system in Greece, including some articles previously published on the web. Other writings have dealt with current political issues and the media, foreign policy, and developmental policy. His recent works focus more on

political theory Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

and cultural issues. He strongly opposes the clash of civilizations theory, and has written extensively about the Greek "civilization of civilizations" (Venizelos, 2001).

Political career

As a student, Venizelos served on the Central Council of the Student Union of the University of Thessaloniki (FEAPT) in 1977, and the National Student Union of Greece (EFEE) in 1975.

Member of Parliament

Venizelos was elected as a

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

MP in the Thessaloniki A constituency in the general elections of 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009. He has been a member of the

parliamentary committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

for the Revision of the Constitution, on which he was spokesman for the majority party in the parliaments elected in 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2007. He was also a member of the Standing Committees on National Defence and Foreign Affairs, on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice and on European Affairs. In parliament, Venizelos currently serves on the Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency and on the Special Permanent Committee on monitoring the decisions of the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

. In addition to his role in parliament, Venizelos has been serving as member of the Greek delegation to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up ...

since 2016. A member of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group, he serves on the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; its Sub-Committee on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights; the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs; and Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights. He has been a member of the PASOK Central Committee since 1990. In the past he was a member of the PASOK Executive Bureau.

Member of the Government

Venizelos has held the following government posts: *Deputy Minister to the Presidency, and government spokesman, 13 October 1993 to 8 July 1994 * Minister for the Press and the Media, and ''government spokesman'', 8 July 1994 to 15 September 1995 * Minister for Transport and Communications, 15 September 1995 to 22 January 1996 *

Minister for Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

, 22 January to 5 September 1996 *

Minister for Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...

, 25 September 1996 to 19 February 1999 * Minister for Development, 19 January 1999 to 13 April 2000 *

, 21 November 2000 to 10 March 2004 *

, 17 June 2011 to 21 March 2012 *

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

, 17 June 2011 to 21 March 2012 *

and Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 25 June 2013 to 27 January 2015. After the legislative elections of 2007, in which PASOK was soundly defeated, Venizelos announced his candidacy for the leadership of the party. In the leadership election, held on 11 November 2007, Venizelos was defeated by incumbent party leader George Papandreou, receiving 38.18% of the vote against 55.91% for Papandreou. When named by Papandreou to the finance and deputy PM positions in June 2011, Venizelos said "'I am leaving defense today to go to the real battle' to reduce Europe’s biggest debt load – almost 1 1/2 times the size of its economy." David Marsh of London and Oxford Capital Markets in ''

MarketWatch MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. Along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and '' Barron's'', it is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp. Histo ...

'' wrote that both "German parliamentarians who voted solidly earlier this month to involve private-sector creditors in the next bail-out package", which

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

has now dropped as a precondition, and "Greece’s politicians and people, who must bow to further austerity as the price for fresh external support", were central as "the stage now shifts to further players in the theatre of Greek affairs." And " body knows whether the burly new Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will put in a starring role or turn out merely as a transitory figure." On 1 June 2019 Venizelos left

and KINAL in protest against the political line of the new leader Fofi Gennimata.

Controversy

Venizelos was active in the

Macedonia naming dispute The use of the country name " Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Western Balkans for 25 years. It was resolved t ...

, when elements in Greece opposed the use of the name "Macedonia" by the newly independent neighbouring

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

. Columnist Mark Dragoumis of ''

Athens News ''Athens News'' was an English-language newspaper published in Greece. The paper had regular sections covering aspects of Greek news such as politics, social issues, business, arts & entertainment and sports, as well as international news. Featur ...

'' opined that, " February 1994, as minister of information, enizeloswas instrumental in convincing the ailing Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou to impose that idiotic 'embargo' on the country later named FYROM." Dragoumis maintained that Venizelos' motivation was to gain "nationalist votes in his Thessaloniki constituency".. Dragoumis also criticised Venizelos for helping pass a law – "in order to boost ispopularity among Greek republicans" – to impose a requirement on King Constantine II, former king of the Hellenes, and his family if they wanted to be granted Greek nationality. The requirement was to submit a declaration that they "unreservedly respected the 1975 Constitution and accepted and recognised the Hellenic Republic". The columnist termed it a "silly precondition – reminiscent of the 'declarations of repentance' that Greek leftists were obliged to sign under pressure during the civil war and after". Ultimately, the law proved irrelevant once Greece signed the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

allowing the ex-king to travel to Greece via Italy without having to pass through Greek immigration..

Notes

References

External links

* *
Position papers, two books
(full text, in Greek) , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Venizelos, Evangelos 1957 births Deputy Prime Ministers of Greece Foreign ministers of Greece Culture ministers of Greece Finance ministers of Greece Greek government-debt crisis 20th-century Greek lawyers Greek MPs 1993–1996 Greek MPs 1996–2000 Greek MPs 2000–2004 Greek MPs 2004–2007 Greek MPs 2007–2009 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek MPs 2015–2019 MPs of Thessaloniki Justice ministers of Greece Leaders of PASOK Living people Ministers of National Defence of Greece Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Politicians from Thessaloniki