Nikolas Papadopoulos (; born 22 April 1973) is a

Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming almost 99% of the 737,196 Cypri ...

lawyer and politician. He has been Member of Parliament for Nicosia since 2006 and leader of centrist

DIKO The Democratic Party (, ''Dimokratikó Kómma'' (DIKO)) is a Greek-Cypriot nationalist, centrist political party in Cyprus founded in 1976 by Spyros Kyprianou. DIKO is variously described as centrist, centre-left or centre-right; international ...

party since 2013. Papadopoulos chairs the parliamentary committee on Finance and Budget. He is the son of President

Tassos Papadopoulos Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos (; 7 January 1934 – 12 December 2008) was a Cypriot politician and barrister, who served as President of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008. An experienced member of the Makarios III’s cabinet, Papadopo ...

Family and education

Papadopoulos was born in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

in 1973, the son of lawyer, politician and future president

and his wife Fotini. He studied law at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

. During his time in London, he served as president of EFEK, the Cypriot students' federation in Britain. On his return to Cyprus, Papadopoulos began work at his father's firm called "Tassos Papadopoulos and Associates". Papadapoulos is married and has three daughters and one son. In addition to Greek, he speaks English.

Political career

Padapoulos was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

as a

MP for the Nicosia constituency in 2006. He was re-elected in 2011. He is the chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Budget as of 2019. Starting in 2009, he became vice-president of DIKO. In the 2013 presidential election, he openly disagreed with DIKO's choice for president,

Nicos Anastasiades Nicos Anastasiades ( ; born 27 September 1946) is a Cypriot politician and businessperson, who served as the seventh president of Cyprus from 2013 to 2023. Previously, he was the leader of Democratic Rally between 1997 and 2013 and served as Me ...

, instead supporting Giorgos Lillikas. He disagreed with him voting yes to the

Annan Plan The Annan Plan (), also known as the Cyprus reunification plan, was a United Nations proposal to resolve the Cyprus dispute. The different parts of the proposal were based on the argumentation put forward by each party (Turkish Cypriots and Gree ...

, when the party's position at the time was no, and said that he was opposite of many of the positions of DIKO. He also disagreed with having

Stavros Malas Stavros Malas (; born 10 June 1967) is a Cypriot geneticist, academic and politician who served in the government of Cyprus as health minister from 2011 to 2012. Previously, he was a Special Advisor to the European Commissioner for Health from 20 ...

as president, who he said had the same positions as Anastasiades but was also supported by

AKEL The Progressive Party of Working People (, , ΑΚΕΛ or AKEL; ) is a Marxist–LeninistHelena Smith, Cyprus gets ready for a communist 'takeover''The Guardian 2008 communist party in Cyprus. AKEL is one of the two major parties in Cyprus, and ...

, which he accused of destroying the country. This led him to resign as vice president of DIKO, as internal party proceedings also disagreed with Papadopoulos. However, just a few months later in December, Padapoulos replaced

Marios Garoyian Marios Garoyian (; ; born 31 May 1961) is a Cypriot politician. He served as leader of the Democratic Party (Cyprus), Democratic Party from 2006 to 2013 and as President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus from 2008 to 2011. Early life ...

as president of DIKO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papadopoulos, Nikolas 1973 births Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Cyprus) Leaders of political parties in Cyprus Democratic Party (Cyprus) politicians Children of presidents Alumni of the UCL Faculty of Laws