Antonis Samaras

Antonis Samaras
Αντώνης Σαμαράς
Samaras in 2014
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 20 June 2012 – 26 January 2015
President	Karolos Papoulias
Deputy	Evangelos Venizelos[a]
Preceded by	Panagiotis Pikrammenos
Succeeded by	Alexis Tsipras
Leader of the Opposition
In office 26 January 2015 – 5 July 2015
Prime Minister	Alexis Tsipras
Preceded by	Alexis Tsipras
Succeeded by	Vangelis Meimarakis
In office 30 November 2009 – 20 June 2012
Prime Minister	George Papandreou Lucas Papademos Panagiotis Pikrammenos
Preceded by	Kostas Karamanlis
Succeeded by	Alexis Tsipras
Other political offices President of New Democracy In office 30 November 2009 – 5 July 2015 Deputy Stavros Dimas Dimitris Avramopoulos Preceded by Kostas Karamanlis Succeeded by Vangelis Meimarakis Minister of Culture In office 8 January 2009 – 6 October 2009 Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis Preceded by Michalis Liapis Succeeded by Pavlos Geroulanos (Culture and Tourism) Minister for Foreign Affairs In office 11 April 1990 – 13 April 1992 Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis Preceded by Georgios Papoulias Succeeded by Konstantinos Mitsotakis In office 23 November 1989 – 16 February 1990 Prime Minister Xenophon Zolotas Preceded by Georgios Papoulias Succeeded by Georgios Papoulias Minister of Finance In office 2 July 1989 – 12 October 1989 Prime Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis Preceded by Dimitris Tsovolas Succeeded by Georgios Agapitos Member of the Hellenic Parliament Incumbent Assumed office 16 September 2007 Constituency Messenia In office 20 November 1977 – 24 August 1996 Constituency Messenia Member of the European Parliament In office 20 July 2004 – 25 September 2007 Constituency Greece
Personal details
Born	(1951-05-23) 23 May 1951 (age 73) Athens, Greece
Political party	New Democracy (1977–1992, 2004–2024) Political Spring (1993–2004) Independent (2024-present)
Spouse	Georgia Kretikos ​ (m. 1990)​
Children	2
Relatives	Emmanouil Benakis (great-great-grandfather) Penelope Delta (great-grandmother)
Education	Amherst College (BA) Harvard University (MBA)

This article is part of a series about Antonis Samaras
Political offices President of Political Spring (1993–2004) President of New Democracy (2009–15) Leader of the Opposition (2009–12; 2015) Prime Minister of Greece (2012–15) Leader of the Opposition First term 2009 New Democracy leadership election First Shadow Cabinet of Antonis Samaras 2010 Greek presidential election First Memorandum Second Memorandum Second term 2015 Greek bailout referendum Prime Minister of Greece Samaras cabinet Lagarde list Seventh austerity package Eighth austerity package Ninth austerity package Closure of ERT 2014–15 presidential election Elections 1993 1996 May 2012 June 2012 2015
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Antonis Samaras (Greek: Αντώνης Σαμαράς, pronounced [anˈdonis samaˈɾas]; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as 14th Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. Member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 (with a brief interruption in 1990) and Minister of Culture in 2009.

Samaras was previously best known for a 1993 controversy in which he effectively caused the New Democracy government, of which he was a member, to fall from power ^{[attribution needed]}. In spite of this, he rejoined the party in 2004 and was elected to its leadership in a closely fought intra-party election in late 2009.^[1] He was the seventh party leader since it was founded in 1974.

In the years that followed, he remained a member of parliament representing the region of Messenia, until November 2024 when he was again expelled from the party's parliamentary group and from New Democracy, due to his criticism of the foreign policy of the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.^[2]

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