Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a Greek politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Greece from June 2023. He was also the prime minister of Greece from July 2019 to May 2023. On 25 June 2023, Mitsotakis won a second term as prime minister after a historic victory for his New Democracy party, for which he has served as president since 2016. Mitsotakis previously was Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2019, and Minister of Administrative Reform from 2013 to 2015. He is the son of the late Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament for the Athens B constituency in 2004. After New Democracy suffered two election defeats in 2015, he was elected the party's leader in January 2016. Three years later, he led his party to a majority in the 2019 Greek legislative election.

During his term as Prime Minister, Mitsotakis has received both praise and criticism for his pro-European, technocratic governance, austerity measures, and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. He has been credited with the modernization and digital transformation of the country's public administration, and has been remarked for his overall management of the Greek economy, with Greece being named the Top Economic Performer for 2022 by The Economist, wich was in particular due to Greece in 2022 being able to repay ahead of schedule 2.7 billion euros ($2.87 billion) of loans owed to Eurozone countries under the first bailout it received during its decade-long debt crisis, along with being on the verge of reaching investment-grade rating. He has also received both praise and criticism for his handling of migration, including praise and aid from the European Union, but criticism from journalists and activists for pushbacks, which his government has denied. Additionally, Mitsotakis has received criticism for heightened corruption during his term, as well as a deterioration of freedom of the press in Greece. His term was marred by the Novartis corruption scandal, the 2022 wiretapping scandal, and the Tempi Train crash. 

Following the May 2023 Greek legislative election in which no party won a majority and no coalition government was formed by any of the parties eligible to do so, Mitsotakis called for another snap election in June. On 24 May 2023, as required by Greece's constitution, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou appointed Ioannis Sarmas to be the caretaker prime minister for the interim period. One month later he once again led his party to a majority in the June 2023 Greek legislative election and was sworn in as prime minister receiving the order to form a government by the President.

Political career :

During the 2000 legislative election, Mitsotakis worked for New Democracy's national campaign. In the 2004 legislative election, Mitsotakis ran in the Athens B constituency, receiving more votes than any other New Democracy candidate in the country and was elected to the Hellenic Parliament.[citation needed]

Mitsotakis is honorary president of Konstantinos K. Mitsotakis Foundation, aiming at promoting the life and works of Konstantinos Mitsotakis and at reporting the modern political history of Greece.[citation needed]

On 24 June 2013, Mitsotakis was appointed as the Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance in Antonis Samaras' cabinet, succeeding Antonis Manitakis. He served in this position until January 2015. During this time, he pursued comprehensive national reforms by implementing a functional reorganization of institutions, structures and processes. He steadfastly supported the drastic downsizing of the Public Sector and the structural reform of the tax administration.

In 2015, Mitsotakis served as a parliamentary representative for New Democracy, representing the President of the party in Parliament, as well as the body of the party's Representatives. He was charged with expressing the positions of his party during Parliamentary procedures and discourse, as well as ensuring the proper function of Parliament through a process of checks and balances. In March 2015, he claimed that then-Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis was undermining the Greek negotiations over the third bailout programme, saying: "Every time he opens his mouth, he creates a problem for the country's negotiating position."

Mitsotakis was the first of four New Democracy members to announce their candidacy in the leadership election, declared following the resignation of Antonis Samaras as party leader and the failure of New Democracy in the September 2015 snap election. Amongst the other contestants was then-interim leader and former Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Vangelis Meimarakis. According to the Financial Times, Mitsotakis was "billed as an outsider in the leadership race" due to the party establishment's support of Meimarakis' candidacy. Following the first round of voting with no clear winner, Mitsotakis came second, 11% behind Meimarakis.

Mitsotakis and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2017

On 10 January 2016, Mitsotakis was elected president of the New Democracy political party succeeding Ioannis Plakiotakis (transitional president) with almost 4% difference from opponent Vangelis Meimarakis. A week following Mitsotakis' election as leader, two opinion polls were published that put New Democracy ahead of Syriza for the first time in a year. 

His party won 33% of the votes in the European elections in 2019. He managed to win back votes from the Golden Dawn Party. Following the election results, the Hellenic Parliament was dissolved and a snap election was called.