Stavros Theodorakis ( ; born 1963) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

journalist and politician, who founded and led the

social liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

party ''To Potami'' (''The River''). In the January 2015 election he was elected to 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 ...

, with his party receiving 6.1%, the fourth most votes, and gaining 17 seats. In the September 2015 election the party won only 11 seats with 4.09%. After the party's underwhelming performance in the 2019 European Parliament Elections (1.52% and no seats), Theodorakis stepped down as President of the party. Born in 1963 in

Drapanias Drapanias () is a small village in northwestern Crete, in the regional unit of Chania. It was the principal town in the Cretan municipality of Kissamos. It was built in the ruins of the ancient town of Methymna. The nearby village of Ano Drapania ...

near

Chania Chania (, , ), also sometimes romanization of Greek, romanized as Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno ...

on the island of

Crete 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 ...

, Theodorakis was raised in

Agia Varvara Agia Varvara (, meaning Saint Barbara) is a suburban town in the western part of the Athens agglomeration in Attica, Greece and a municipality in the West Athens regional unit. Geography And Demographics Agia Varvara is situated east of the ...

, western

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

. His career as a journalist started in 1984 at the radio stations ''902 FM'' and Skai 100.3, as well as the newspaper

Eleftherotypia ''Eleftherotypia'' () was a daily national newspaper published in Athens, Greece. Published since 21 July 1975, it was the first newspaper to appear after the fall of the Regime of the Colonels, and for most of its period had been one of the ...

. Between 1985 and 1987 he was engaged in educating

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

. He also wrote three books. In 2000, he started the show "Protagonists" at the former public TV channel

NET NET may refer to: Broadcast media United States * National Educational Television, the predecessor of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States * National Empowerment Television, a politically conservative cable TV network ...

, and in 2006 took it to the private station Mega TV. Every Saturday he wrote a column in the newspaper

Ta Nea ''Ta Nea'' (; Translation: ''The News'') is a daily newspaper published in Athens. It was owned by Lambrakis Press Group (DOL), which also published the newspaper ''To Vima''. The assets of DOL were acquired in 2017 by Alter Ego Media S.A. The ...

. On 26 February 2014, he announced his decision to quit both his show at Mega TV and his column at Ta Nea in order to launch a new party. He also promised to take a back seat on the website ''Protagon.gr'' he is also involved in. Striving to "create a new European policy to foster a broader Leftist movement", he also stated that "the survival of a country cannot depend on the kindness of its creditors". On 14 June 2017, he underwent surgery to remove a tumour at the Metropolitan Hospital Urological Clinic, led by surgeon Vasilis Poulakis. Doctors said the surgery went well.

References

External links

Author profile
on ''Protagon.gr'' * 1963 births Greek columnists Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek television journalists Living people People from Chania (regional unit) The River (Greece) politicians Greek MPs 2015–2019 The River (Greece) Politicians from Crete {{Greece-politician-stub