Athanasios Pafilis (

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 ...

: Αθανάσιος Παφίλης) (born 8 November 1954) is a Greek

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

politician, member of the Hellenic Parliament and member of the central committee of the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece. Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curre ...

. He is also the General Secretary of the World Peace Council and was briefly also a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been 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 Steel Commu ...

(MEP).

Biography

Pafilis was born on 8 November 1954 in the village of Pitsio of Phtiotida. He grew up in a left-wing family and his father was a member of ELAS and participated in the Greek resistance during the Axis occupation of Greece, and in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

as a member of the Democratic Army. About five people of his family were killed in the civil war. When he was 12 he left his village and moved to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

where he worked in a Construction site. He was a supporter of the Greek Communist Party from his childhood. He is a law graduate from 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 phi ...

Political career

He joined the

Communist Youth of Greece The Communist Youth of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστική Νεολαία Ελλάδας ''Kommounistiki Neolea Elladas'', KNE) is the youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). It publishes the monthly newspaper ''Odigitis'' (Greek: � ...

during the Greek Dictatorship and witnessed the Polytechnic uprising. He was elected to the Greek Parliament in

June 1989 The following events occurred in June 1989: June 1, 1989 (Thursday) *Pope John Paul II began a 10-day trip to Norway, Iceland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden. He arrived in Norway on June 1 and left on June 3, visiting Oslo, Trondheim and Troms ...

with

Synaspismos The Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology ( el, Συνασπισμός της Αριστεράς των Κινημάτων και της Οικολογίας, ''Synaspismós tīs Aristerás tōn Kinīmátōn kai tīs Oikologías''), com ...

for

Phthiotida Phthiotis ( el, Φθιώτιδα, ''Fthiótida'', ; ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Φθιῶτις) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia. It is border ...

, and re-elected in November 1989 and April 1990. On 16 July 1991, he switched affiliation and joined the

(KKE). He is a member of the Central Committee of KKE since 1991 and General Secretary of EEDYE, the Greek branch of the World Peace Council. Between 2002 and 2004 he was a local councillor of the

Athens Prefecture The Athens Prefecture ( el, Νομαρχία Αθηνών, translit=Nomarkhía Athinón) was one of the prefectures of Greece. It was part of the Attica region and the Athens-Piraeus super-prefecture. The capital of the prefecture was the city ...

. He was elected Member of the European Parliament for Greece in 2004 with KKE, and sat with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He was re-elected to the European Parliament in July 2009, but resigned on 13 October 2009 after being elected to the Greek Parliament with KKE, and he has since been a member of the Hellenic Parliament.

References

External links

* * 1954 births Living people People from Spercheiada Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology politicians Communist Party of Greece MEPs European United Left–Nordic Green Left MEPs MEPs for Greece 2004–2009 MEPs for Greece 2009–2014 Greek MPs 1989 (June–November) Greek MPs 1989–1990 Greek MPs 1990–1993 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 Communist Party of Greece politicians Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek MPs 2015–2019 Greek MPs 2019–2023 {{Greece-MEP-stub