Evangelos-Vasileios "Vangelis" Meimarakis (, ; born 14 December 1953) is a Greek politician who served as the acting President of

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

and

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

in Greece from 5 July to 24 November 2015, competing as the challenger to Prime Minister

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

in the

September 2015 Greek legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 20 September 2015, following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' announced resignation on 20 August. At stake were all 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament. This was a snap election, the sixth sin ...

. He lost in the run-off of the New Democracy leadership election, 2015–16. Since 2019, he has been a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

. Meimarakis previously served as the

Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament The President of the Hellenic Parliament is the presiding officer of the Parliament of Greece. The president's term coincides with the term of the assembly,and is chosen by a vote during the opening session, after each legislative election. Fol ...

from 2012 to 2014 and as Minister for National Defence from 2006 to 2009. He was a Member of the

Hellenic Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme demo ...

for

Athens B Athens B (Athens Beta; ) was a parliamentary constituency in Attica represented in the Hellenic Parliament. It covered a large part of urban area of Athens outside the Municipality of Athens, which forms the Athens A constituency. It was establi ...

from 1989 until 2019.

Early life and education

Meimarakis was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and is of

Cretan Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

descent. His father was a

Member of the Hellenic Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme democratic instit ...

with ERE representing

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

. Meimarakis joined

in 1974 as a student at

Panteion University The Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (PUSPS; , ΠΠΚΠΕ), usually referred to simply as the Panteion University (Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο), is a university located in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1927, it is the ...

. That year, he helped found the

Youth Organisation of New Democracy The Youth Organisation of New Democracy () is the youth organisation of the centre-right liberal Greece, Greek political party New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy. It was founded in 1974 by young members of New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy. ...

(ONNED).

Political career

Early political career

Meimarakis was appointed chairman of the ONNED Executive Committee in 1984, and led the organisation to its 1st Conference in March 1987. He has been a member of the New Democracy Central Committee since the 2nd Party Conference in 1986. He was first elected as a New Democracy

representing

in the general elections of 1989 (June and November). He has since been reelected in 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000. Meimarakis was one of New Democracy's parliamentary representatives from 1991 to 1992. He served as Deputy Minister for Sports from 1992 to 1993. In March 2001, at New Democracy's 5th Conference, he was elected as Secretary of the Central Committee, the first person to hold this role. He was reelected as Secretary in July 2004, and remained in this role until 15 February 2006, when he was appointed as the Minister for National Defense in the First Cabinet of Kostas Karamanlis.

Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament

On 29 June 2012, he became

, a position he held until the next Parliament was elected in January 2015.

Acting Leader of the New Democracy

In July 2015,

Antonis Samaras Antonis Samaras (, ; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his na ...

resigned as leader of New Democracy following the 'No' vote in the bailout referendum. Meimarakis took over from Samaras as an interim leader. In this capacity he led the party into the snap election on 20 September 2015, at which New Democracy were defeated for a second time in nine months by

SYRIZA The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

. Meimarakis did however succeed in slightly increasing the ND vote share from 27.8% to 28.1%. Despite this, their seat tally dropped from 76 to 75. Meimarakis continued as interim leader following the September election, announcing that a New Democracy leadership election would take place before the end of the year and that he would be a candidate. On 24 November, Meimarakis appointed the secretary of the New Democracy parliamentary group,

Ioannis Plakiotakis Giannis Plakiotakis (; born 10 July 1968) is a Greek politician who served as the acting President of New Democracy following the resignation of Vangelis Meimarakis. He has been a Member of the Hellenic Parliament (MP) for Lasithi since 2004. ...

, as a vice president of the party, before resigning and therefore making Plakiotakis the new interim leader.

Member of the European Parliament

Meimarakis has been a

since the 2019 European elections. He has since been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its

Subcommittee on Security and Defence The Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is responsible for European security and defence policy, including institutions, capabilities and operations, as we ...

. Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the

Conference on the Future of Europe The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium- to long-term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to ...

. Within the centre-right

European People's Party Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group or simply EPP) is a political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent ME ...

(EPP), Meimarakis is one of the deputies of chairman

Manfred Weber Manfred Weber (born 14 July 1972) is a German politician who has been serving as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European ...

.EPP Group re-elects Manfred Weber as Group Chair

(EPP), press release of June 5, 2019.

Personal life

Meimarakis is married to Ioanna Kolokota, the daughter of Greek actress Nitsa Marouda, and they have two daughters. He is fluent in English. Meimarakis is seen as down-to-earth, with Vassilis Monastiriotis of the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

commenting that he appeals to: "a broad cross-section: both working-class voters, who see him as a man of the people, and the traditional higher-income New Democracy supporters, who see him as a cunning operator able to hit Tsipras below the belt".

References

External links

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Meimarakis, Vangelis 1953 births 20th-century Greek lawyers Greek MPs 1989 (June–November) Greek MPs 1989–1990 Greek MPs 1990–1993 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 Leaders of New Democracy (Greece) Living people Ministers of national defence of Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni New Democracy (Greece) MEPs Panteion University alumni Writers from Athens Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament MEPs for Greece 2019–2024 MEPs for Greece 2024–2029