Adonis Georgiadis | |
|---|---|
Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης | |
.jpg) Georgiadis in 2024 | |
| Minister for Health | |
| Assumed office 4 January 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
| Preceded by | Michalis Chrisochoidis |
| In office 25 June 2013 – 10 June 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Antonis Samaras |
| Preceded by | Andreas Lykourentzos [el] |
| Succeeded by | Makis Voridis |
| Minister for Labour and Social Security | |
| In office 27 June 2023 – 4 January 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
| Preceded by | Patrina Paparrigopoulou(caretaker) |
| Succeeded by | Domna Michailidou |
| Minister for Development and Investment | |
| In office 9 July 2019 – 26 May 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
| Preceded by | Yannis Dragasakis(Economy and Development) |
| Succeeded by | Eleni Louri-Dendrinou(caretaker) |
| Deputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping | |
| In office 11 November 2011 – 11 February 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | Lucas Papademos |
| Vice President ofNew Democracy | |
| Assumed office 18 January 2016 Serving with Kostis Hatzidakis | |
| President | Kyriakos Mitsotakis |
| Member of theHellenic Parliament | |
| Assumed office 7 July 2019 | |
| Constituency | Athens B1 |
| In office 6 May 2012 – 12 June 2019 | |
| In office 16 September 2007 – 17 February 2012 | |
| Constituency | Athens B |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1972-11-06)6 November 1972 (age 52) Athens, Greece |
| Political party | New Democracy(2012–present) Popular Orthodox Rally(2003–2012) |
| Spouse | Eugenia Manolidou |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Athens (BA) |
| Website | www |
Spyridon-Adonis Georgiadis (Greek:Σπυρίδων-Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης; born 6 November 1972), commonly known asAdonis Georgiadis, is aGreekright wing politician, author, publisher and former telemarketer. Often described as being on theright wing of thepolitical spectrum,[1][2][3][4][5] he currently serves as Vice President ofNew Democracy andMinister for Health in theSecond Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He previously served in the same cabinet asMinister for Labour and Social Security (2023–2024),Minister for Development and Investment in theFirst Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis (2019–2023), Minister for Health in theCabinet of Antonis Samaras (2013–2014) andDeputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping in theCabinet of Lucas Papademos (2011–2012).
Georgiadis started working at his father's bookstore at the age of 15. He graduated with aBachelor of Arts inhistory from the Department of History and Archaeology of the School of Philosophy of theUniversity of Athens at the age of 31.[6]
Georgiadis joined thePopular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) in 2003, serving asparty spokesman from December 2003 to August 2007.[6] He ran for the office ofPrefect of Athens in the2006 local elections.[6] On 16 September 2007, he waselected amember of theHellenic Parliament for theAthens B constituency, and wasre-elected in October 2009. He ran as the LAOS candidate for Governor ofAttica in the2010 local elections.
On 11 November 2011, Georgiadis was appointedDeputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping in thecoalition government ofLucas Papademos. He resigned the position on 11 February 2012, amidst a row with party leaderGeorgios Karatzaferis over the latter's opposition to theSecond Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. On 13 February, he andMakis Voridis were expelled from the LAOSparliamentary group for voting in favor of the second bailout against the party line.[7] On 17 February, Georgiadis joinedNew Democracy, having given up his parliamentary seat to LAOS. He was subsequently re-elected on the New Democracy ticket at the elections held inMay andJune 2012, and has retained his seat at every election held since, representing Athens B until 2019 andAthens B1 thereafter.
He was appointedMinister for Health in thecoalition government ofAntonis Samaras, serving from June 2013 to June 2014. As minister, Georgiadis gave complete free pharmaceutical coverage to more than 2.000.000 uninsured citizens,[8][9] with the cost being set at 340 million euros. In September 2014, Georgiadis was appointed parliamentary spokesman for New Democracy.
His consistent electoral success has seen him rise through the party ranks, and he was one of the four candidates in the2015–16 New Democracy leadership election.[10] He campaigned for liberal reforms, tax and spending cuts and a battle against the "ideological hegemony" of theLeft. In the first round, he received 46,065 votes (11.40%) and finished last among the four candidates.[11] In the second round, he supportedKyriakos Mitsotakis, who won the election and became the new party leader. On 18 January 2016, Georgiadis was appointed one of the party's two vice-presidents, serving alongsideKostis Hatzidakis ever since.
Until his expulsion from LAOS, Georgiadis often appeared onTeleAsty [el], a television channel founded and run by party leaderGeorgios Karatzaferis. On his daily programmeEllinon Egersis (Greek:Ἑλλήνων Ἔγερσις, "Hellenes' Awakening"), which later moved toKontra Channel, he and his brotherLeonidas commented on current affairs and advertised books of mainly historical and philological interest, both from the family's own publishing house and other Greek publishers. He also publishes the magazineElliniki Agogi, which covers issues of national and historical interest. In 1994, Georgiadis founded an organization of the same name to promote the teaching of thelanguage and civilization ofancient Greece to children and adults.[12]
Georgiadis has writtenHomosexuality in Ancient Greece: the Myth Collapses in which he argues that whereashomosexuality was present in Ancient Greece as in other countries, its extent and social acceptance have been inflated.[13] In a 2015 TV show discussing his book, he claimed that "homosexuality did not exist in Ancient Greece".[14] He had also previously written aGuide to Ancient Greek Coins.
He has also written the historical novelTheodora Phranza: or, the Fall of Constantinople. Greek journalist Tasos Kostopoulos has claimed that this book is the product of plagiarism of a 19th-century English book byJohn Mason Neale. Moreover, according to Kostopoulos, Georgiadis added some characters to the English original, including Bartholomew, a Jewish advisor to the Sultan Mehmet.[15] In the book, Bartholomew has the following dialogue with the Sultan: "You are a really valuable advisor. Had it not been for your advice, I do not know whether I would be here now, besieging Constantinople. You must really hate the Greeks, since you work so relentlessly for their destruction." To which the Jew answers: "I hate them! Nobody in the world will be happier than I when Constantinople will fall to your hands."[16] Kostopoulos´ claims were supported by a number of Greek journalists. Georgiadis reply was that he had never hidden he had adapted a previous work.[17][18][19][20]
Georgiadis' speaking style might have a nuance of the more formalkatharevousa.[specify] He also advocates the use of thepolytonic system for writing the Greek language;Elliniki Agogi is written in this system, which has not been the prevailing practice in Greek publishing since the 1980s. Georgiadis has called for more research to investigate whether the introduction of themonotonic system was beneficial or not to the Greek culture and education.[citation needed] Once appointed Deputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping he changed the signs at his ministry to conform to the polytonic system.[22]
Georgiadis often condemns the opinions expressed in left-wing publications such asEleftherotypia or by left-wing politicians such as those ofSyriza, with both parties having exchanged sharp-tongued criticism. He also routinely condemned the policies of the two former leading Greek parties,New Democracy and thePanhellenic Socialist Movement, which he viewed as two sides of the same coin.[citation needed] He has often used the termtholokoultoura (Greek: θολοκουλτούρα; hazy-culture) to group his left-wing ideological opponents:
The hazy-culture is a very specific thing: it is a group of people who believe that to remember our national ancestry is a factor of conservatism. They are today the best allies of globalization. What is the goal of globalization? It wants to destroy every notion of a national tradition and anational memory so as to transform the totality of the population of our planet into simple customers of multi-national corporations and into complacent subjects of the world-ruling Superpower.
— Adonis Georgiadis in Greek TV showErevna hosted byPavlos Tsimas, March 13, 2007
He often states that the destruction of theGreek economy and Greek society began in 1981 with the election ofAndreas Papandreou as PM and the party ofPASOK.[citation needed]
During the recent2015-16 New Democracy leadership election, he accusedSyriza of being "a second-time PASOK". He described himself as "liberal" in economic matters, while often stated that is necessary to break the "hegemony of the Left on the ideas" inside the Greek society. He stated "I want to be in Greece, whatNicolas Sarkozy is in France", while rejected the policies ofMarine Le Pen and hereuroscepticism as anti-European.[citation needed]
Another case of criticism to the Left from Georgiadis' side is about the educational system, and especially theuniversities system. According to him, the leftists dominate the Greek universities. He has many times expressed his will for the abolition of the "universityasylum" (laws that forbid to theGreek police the entry to a Greek university), stating that it is only a tool for theanarchists to burn and destroy Greek universities.[23]
Georgiadis is in favour of putting an end to Greece's "eternal students", people who have been enrolled at university for years without graduating. However, he came under attack from Greek media when in December 2012 it became known that he had earned his degree at the age of 31.[24]
He has been criticised, among other things, because of his past with thePopular Orthodox Rally party, for a series of far-right positions that he has formulated,[25] but also for the closure of five hospitals in Athens and Thessaloniki during his tenure as Minister for Health.[26] For a number of years he advertised anti-Semitic content from the book ofKonstantinos Plevris, an event for which he later apologised to the Jewish community.[27] He himself denies that he has been a far-rightist.[28]
Georgiadis, in the past, has been accused of "troubling remarks about Jews and his public promotion of an anti-Semitic book by a pro-claimed anti-semite".[29][30] Georgiadis has countered that he sells these books like other Greek bookstores, saying that he disagrees with their content.[31] In October 2015, when he was a candidate for New Democracy, he described the engagement with the Plevris Book of the Jews as "the biggest mistake of my political career to date," but he said he never was ananti-Semite. In January 2017, at the Holocaust memorial day, he publicly apologized for tolerating the views of people who showed disrespect toGreek Jews, for supporting and promoting the anti-semitic book ofKonstantinos Plevris “Jews: The Whole Truth” and for his friendly relations with him.[32][33]
Regarding theAthens Polytechnic Uprising, Georgiadis has claimed that "there was no one dead inside thePolytechnic School, not a single one! ThePolytechnic Uprising is the foundational political myth of the ideological domination of the Left in Greece". They got the police report of the previous day, of the same day and of the next day and whoever died in Attica of whatever reason became a victim of snipers."[34] His statements have been criticized by the media.[35][36][37][38] Syriza has called Georgiadis's claims an "ahistorical abjection".[39]
On 16 November 2017, Georgiadis announced that he would cease working as atelemarketer. A few days earlier he came under intense criticism after it was revealed that the healing effects supposedly provided by thenanotechnological jackets that he was promoting were in fact void and based onpseudoscience. Fellow telemarketer Makis Triandafillopoulos had been previously convicted of fraud for selling exactly the same model of nano jackets following an investigation by the Greek consumer protection agency.[40][41]
On February 1, 2021, Georgiadis mocked the move of the restaurant businessmen to hand over the keys of their shops to the Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis who with one of the most extreme quarantines for COVID-19 in the world has banned the operation of these businesses for months. More specifically, Georgiadis told SKAI TV that any restaurant businessman can hand over the keys and his own business to him in order to operate it.[42]
In May 2021, Georgiadis in a TV appearance supported the distinctions between Greek citizens and tourists regarding the observance of the measures against COVID-19. More specifically, Georgiadis stated that the traffic restrictions in Greece may apply after May 15, 2021, when tourism opens in the country, but that these restrictions will apply only to Greek citizens and not to tourists.[43]
One of the bookstores of Georgiadis publishers (Ekdoseis Georgiadi), in theExarcheia district ofAthens, has been targeted and burnt 17 times by unidentified opponents.[44] Georgiadis has since moved this bookstore, stating that he did so to protect the anti-riot police that was tasked to protect his business. In November 2012, Georgiadis closed down his bookshop.[45][46]
He is married to classical composer and reality TV celebrityEugenia Manolidou raising a son and a daughter from her previous marriage,[47] and two own sons named Athanasios-Perseas born 2009[48] and Alkaios-Anastasios, born 2014.
Ο νέος υφυπουργός άλλαξε τις πινακίδες στα γραφεία που βρίσκονται στον ίδιο όροφο με το δικό του γραφείο αντικαθιστώντας το μονοτονικό σύστημα σε πολυτονικό.
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(in Greek)| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 2013–2014 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Yannis Dragasakis(Economy and Development) | Minister for Development and Investment 2019–2023 | Succeeded by Eleni Louri-Dendrinou(caretaker) |
| Preceded by Patrina Paparrigopoulou(caretaker) | Minister for Labour and Social Security 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health 2024–present | Incumbent |
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