Stefanos Manos (; born 1939) 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 ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

, former 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 ...

, and a former government minister.

Career

His political career started in the

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 ...

party, for which he became a Member of Parliament in 1977. During the 1980s he would be the unpopular forerunner of Greek privatization. In April 1999, he formed his own party, The Liberals, but following its unsuccessful performance in the elections held in June for the European parliament (1,62%), he returned to the Hellenic Parliament firstly in 2000 as MP in co-operation with the major party of New Democracy, and again in the 2004 elections as independent by the statewide list but surprisingly on a rival

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Greece, political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was Two-party system, one of the two major ...

ticket. After he suspended his Liberals' operation in 2002, he established in 2009 his new own party, Drassi, which he continues to lead. Heading Drassi, he took part in the 2009 European parliament election (0,76%). In May 2012, Drassi merged with the newly formed party Recreate Greece for the 2012 elections. Manos is a notable critic of profligate government spending and waste. He is famous for saying in 1992, while he was Greek finance minister, that "it would be cheaper for Greece to send every rail passenger to their destination by taxi", a quote which was used by

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. ...

in his book '' Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World''.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Manos, Stefanos 1939 births Finance ministers of Greece Greek MPs 1977–1981 Greek MPs 1981–1985 Greek MPs 1985–1989 Greek MPs 1989 (June–November) Greek MPs 1990–1993 Greek MPs 2004–2007 Harvard University alumni Independent politicians in Greece Living people New Democracy (Greece) politicians Politicians from Athens ETH Zurich alumni