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Dora Bakoyannis

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Person.png Dora Bakoyannis   WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician)
Dora Bakoyannis.jpg
Born1954-05-06
Athens, Greece
NationalityGreek
Alma materUniversity of Munich, University of Athens
ParentsKonstantinos Mitsotakis
Children • Alexia Bakoyannis
• Kostas Bakoyannis
SiblingsKyriakos Mitsotakis
Spouse • Pavlos Bakoyannis
• Isidoros Kouvelos
Member ofCentre for European Policy Studies
PartyNew Democracy, New Democratic Alliance
Double Bilderberg Greek politician in well-connected family. Daughter and sister of Prime Minsters.

Employment.png Greece/Minister for Foreign Affairs

In office
15 February 2006 - 6 October 2009
Succeeded byGeorge Papandreou

Employment.png Mayor of Athens

In office
1 January 2003 - 14 February 2006

Employment.png Greece/Minister for Culture

In office
3 December 1992 - 13 October 1993

Dora Bakoyannis is a Greek politician, daughter of former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis and sister of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and attended the 2003 and 2009 Bilderberg conferences. She is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Background

Bakoyannis was born in Athens in 1954 to a dominant Greek family in the field of politics. She is the eldest of four children of the veteran Greek politician Konstantinos Mitsotakis, former Prime Minister of Greece and former leader of country's main centre-right political party New Democracy, and Marika Mitsotakis (née Giannoukou). Her family originates from Chania, Crete, and has a long tradition in the politics of Greece. Besides her father and herself, other members of the family include prominent politicians such as her grandfather, Kyriakos, and his brother Aristomenis, while her younger brother Kyriakos, was Prime Minister of Greece. She is also a great-granddaughter of Eleftherios Venizelos' sister. This decade-long involvement is an attestation of family-rule in Greek political life.

Eduction

During her early school years, she attended the German School of Athens. Her family was exiled to Paris by the Greek military junta in 1968, thus she completed her secondary schooling at the German School of Paris. She then studied political science and communication at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich without graduating. After the collapse of the junta, she returned to Greece and continued her academic studies in public law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In addition to Greek, Bakoyannis is fluent in English, French and German.[1]

Marriages

While studying in Munich, she met Pavlos Bakogiannis, her first husband. During the military dictatorship in Greece, he had worked there as a journalist for Deutsche Welle against the military junta. After his marriage, he became a member of the parliament for New Democracy and an adviser to his father-in-law. On September 26, 1989, he was assassinated by "terrorists" of the underground organization "November 17".[1]

In her second marriage, Dora Bakogianni was married to the Greek businessman Isidoros Kouvelos. From her marriage to Pavlos Bakogiannis she has two children. Her son Kostas Bakogiannis has been mayor of Athens since 2019 and was previously governor of the Central Greece region since 2014.[2]

Political career

Before her political career, Dora Bakogianni was her father's office manager – after returning from joint exile during the dictatorship. She began her political career after the murder of her husband, when she took over his parliamentary seat. After the election victory of the New Democracy in 1990, she became Minister of Culture in her father's cabinet until 1993.[1]

She was the mayor of the Greek capital Athens from 2002 to 2006 and the first woman in this office. Dora Bakogianni became internationally known through the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens during her tenure.[1]

From February 15, 2006 until 2009, she was Foreign Minister of Greece in the governments of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis[1] .

After Karamanlis also resigned as party leader after the heavy defeat of the New Democracy in the 2009 parliamentary elections, Dora Bakogianni ran for the party chairmanship. However, in the direct election by the party's base on October 29, 2009, she was defeated after a bitter election campaign by Antonis Samaras.[1]

When she voted for the government's austerity package with the ruling PASOK on May 6, 2010, Samaras expelled her from the New Democracy (ND) faction and from the party. After her expulsion from the party on 6 May 2010, she was an independent member of the Greek Parliament.

On July 11, 2010, Dora Bakogianni founded the Forum for Greece,a "non-profit organization". The stated purpose of the forum was to solve the problems hindering the development of Greece, to protect important principles, such as democracy, equality and social justice, to promote the participation of all citizens in social and political life, to develop new ideas and strategies in the sense of fruitful cooperation with civil society.

A few months later, on 21 November 2010, Dora Bakogianni founded her new party, the neoliberal Dimokratiki Symmachia. At the beginning of 2012, the party was able to count on the support of a total of five deputies in the Greek parliament, who were also expelled from the ND. In the early parliamentary elections of May 6, 2012, her party failed to re-enter the Greek parliament with 2.55 percent. In the new elections on June 17, 2012, the Dimokratiki Symmachia did not stand, but supported New Democracy. Bakogianni was nominated as a candidate on the list of the New Democracy and elected[3]. In May 2014, Dimokratiki Symmachia finally rejoined New Democracy. In the January 2015 election, she was elected to parliament as a member for New Democracy.[4] Since January 2016, her brother Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been the chairman of the party.

She is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.[5]

 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/200315 May 200318 May 2003France
Versailles
The 51st Bilderberg, in Versailles, France
Bilderberg/200914 May 200917 May 2009Greece
Vouliagmeni
The 57th Bilderberg
Munich Security Conference/200920092009Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 45th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20131 February 20133 February 2013Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/20156 February 20158 February 2015Germany
Munich
Bavaria
"400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts."
Munich Security Conference/201612 February 201614 February 2016Germany
Munich
Bavaria
The 52nd Munich Security Conference
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References