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 | Panayiotis Pikrammenos (caretaker) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 Panayiotis Pikrammenos (caretaker) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Kostas Karamanlis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Alexis Tsipras | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1951-05-23)23 May 1951 (age 74) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Independent(2024–present) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | New Democracy(1977–1992, 2004–2024) Political Spring(1993–2004) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Emmanouil Benakis (great-great-grandfather) Penelope Delta (great-grandmother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Amherst College (BA) Harvard University (MBA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||
|---|---|---|
Political offices
Leader of the Opposition First term
Second term Prime Minister of Greece
Elections  | ||
Antonis Samaras (Greek:Αντώνης Σαμαράς,pronounced[anˈdonissamaˈɾas]; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served asPrime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of theNew Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his national political career asMinister of Finance in 1989; he served asMinister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 (with a brief interruption in 1990) andMinister of Culture in 2009. Samaras was expelled from the ruling conservative party in November 2024.
In September 1993, two New Democracy MPs defected from the parliamentary group, aligning with Samaras's party, causingKonstantinos Mitsotakis's government to lose its parliamentary majority and resign,triggering new elections. Samaras's role in the government's fall led to a complete rift between the two politicians, Mitsotakis and Samaras.[2] 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.[3] 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 ofMessenia, 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 thegovernment of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.[4]
Born inAthens, Samaras is the son of Dr Konstantinos Samaras (a Professor ofCardiology) and Lena (néeZannas, a maternal granddaughter of authorPenelope Delta). His brother, Alexander, is an architect. His paternal uncle, George Samaras, was a long-standing Member of Parliament forMessinia in the 1950s and 1960s.
Samaras grew up among well-connected families of Athens. At the age of 17, he won the Greek Teen Tennis Championship.[5] He attended school in theAthens College (founded by his maternal great-grandfather, Stefanos Delta, and his great-great-grandfather,Emmanouil Benakis) and graduated fromAmherst College in 1974 with a degree ineconomics, and then fromHarvard University in 1976 with anMBA.[6]
Samaras and former Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou were dormitory roommates during their student years atAmherst College, but became bitter political rivals.[7] He is married and has a daughter and a son. His daughter Lena, a civil engineer, died from a cardiac arrest and a seizure on 7 August 2025 at the age of 34.[8]
| Part ofa series on |
| Conservatism in Greece |
|---|
|
Ideologies |
Organisations |
Samaras has been elected as a member of parliament, initially forMessinia, from 1977 onward. In 1989 he becameminister of finance, later advancing to become theminister of foreign affairs in the New Democracy government of Prime MinisterKonstantinos Mitsotakis (1990–1993), from which post he caused theMacedonia naming dispute to ignite. In a meeting of the Greek political leaders under the president of the republic on the naming dispute on 13 April 1992, Samaras presented his own conditions for the solution of the crisis. These were rejected by both the president of the republic,Konstantinos Karamanlis, as well as the prime minister,Konstantinos Mitsotakis. Samaras was subsequently removed from Minister of Foreign Affairs.[9]
After being removed from his post, Samaras founded his own party,Political Spring (Greek: Πολιτική Άνοιξη, romanised asPolitiki Anoixi), located politically to the right of New Democracy. The defection of one Member of Parliament from New Democracy to Samaras's party caused the government's fall from power in 1993.
Political Spring gained 4.9% of the vote in the1993 general election, earning ten seats in theHellenic Parliament. It gained 8.7% in the1994 European Parliament election, earning two seats. Its decline began in the1996 general election, when it gained 2.94 per cent, just below the 3 per cent threshold necessary to enter parliament. It participated in the1999 European Parliament election, but only got 2.3%, which was not enough to elect MEPs.
Political Spring did not participate in the2000 general election; Samaras publicly supported the New Democracy party. Before the2004 general election, Samaras dissolved his party, rejoined New Democracy and he was elected aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) in the2004 European elections.
In the2007 general election he was elected to the Hellenic Parliament forMessinia and consequently resigned from theEuropean Parliament. He was succeeded byMargaritis Schinas. In January 2009 he was appointedMinister of Culture following a government reshuffle. In this capacity he inaugurated the newAcropolis Museum in July 2009. He was reelected in Messenia in 2009.
After New Democracy resoundingly lost the2009 legislative election,Kostas Karamanlis resigned as head of the party, prompting aleadership race, and Samaras ran for the post. Early polls showed he was running neck-and-neck with the perceived initial favoriteDora Bakoyanni, the former Foreign Minister and former Athens mayor.[10] Shortly thereafter, another leadership candidate, former MinisterDimitris Avramopoulos, announced he was resigning his candidacy and would instead support Samaras. In a break with previous practice, an extraordinary party congress resolved that the new leader would be elected by party members in a countrywide ballot. Samaras's candidacy soared in opinion polls and finished the race as a favorite.
.jpg)
In the early morning hours of 30 November 2009, Samaras was elected the new President of New Democracy.[11] Following early results showing Samaras in a comfortable lead, Bakoyanni, his main rival, conceded defeat and called Samaras to congratulate him. He accepted his election with a speech at the party headquarters, and pledged to carry out a broad ideological and organizational reform, aspiring to regain majority status. He was later instrumental in the expulsion of Bakoyanni (2010) for defying the party line and voting for an austerity measure required for European Union-International Monetary Fund backed lending.
Prime MinisterGeorge Papandreou announced his government's plans on 31 October to hold a referendum on the acceptance of the terms of aEurozone bailout deal. The referendum was to be held in December 2011 or January 2012. Following vehement opposition from both within and outside the country, Papandreou however scrapped the plan a few days later on 3 November.
On 5 November, Papandreou's government only narrowly won a confidence vote in the Greek Parliament, and he called for immediate elections. The next day, Papandreou met with opposition leaders trying to reach an agreement on the formation of an interim national unity government. However, Samaras only gave in after Papandreou agreed to step aside, allowing the EU bailout to proceed and paving the way for elections on 19 February 2012.
After several days of intense negotiations, the two major parties along with the Popular Orthodox Rally agreed to form a grand coalition headed by former Vice President of the European Central BankLucas Papademos. On 10 November, George Papandreou formally resigned as Prime Minister of Greece. The new coalition cabinet and Prime Minister Lucas Papademos were formally sworn in on 11 November 2011.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Following theMay 2012 general election in which theNew Democracy party became the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament, Samaras was asked byGreek PresidentKarolos Papoulias to try to form a government.[12] However, after a day of negotiations with the other parties, Samaras officially announced he was giving up the mandate to form a government. The task passed toAlexis Tsipras, Leader ofSyriza, the second largest party, who was also unable to form a government.[13] After thePanhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) also failed to negotiate a successful agreement to form a government, emergency talks with the president of Greece ended with a new election being called while the outgoing chairman of theCouncil of StatePanayiotis Pikrammenos was appointed as Prime Minister of Greece in acaretaker government composed of independent technocrats.
Voters once again took to the polls in the widely watchedJune 2012 election. The New Democracy party came out on top in a stronger position with 129 seats, compared to 108 in the May election.[citation needed] On 20 June 2012, Samaras successfully formed a coalition with the PASOK (now led by former Finance MinisterEvangelos Venizelos) and theDemocratic Left (DIMAR).[14] The new government had a majority of 28 (which was later reduced to 18),[15] withSyriza, theIndependent Greeks (ANEL),Golden Dawn (XA) and theCommunist Party (KKE) comprising the opposition. The PASOK and DIMAR chose to take a limited role inSamaras's Cabinet, being represented by party officials and independent technocrats instead of MPs.[16]
The Democratic Left left the coalition on 21 June 2013 in protest at the closure of the nation's public broadcasterHellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), leaving Samaras with a slim majority of 153 ND and PASOK MPs combined.[17] The two remaining parties proceeded to negotiate a cabinet reshuffle that resulted in a significantly expanded role for PASOK in the newcoalition government.[18][19] A further reshuffle followed the2014 European Parliament election.[20]
Samaras implemented a series of reforms andausterity measures with the aim of reducing government budget deficits and making the Greek economy competitive. In 2013 he passed reform bills approving the layoff of 15,000 public employees, among them high school teachers, school guards and municipal policemen. At the same time, he cut value-added tax (VAT) in restaurants to 13 percent from 23 percent.[21] He also passed a bill instituting the Single Property Tax and the auction of houses.[22] TheMinister of Administrative Reform and e-GovernanceKyriakos Mitsotakis implemented an evaluation process on the public sector to locate surplus staff members.[23]
Greece achieved a primary government budget surplus in 2013. In April 2014, Greece returned to the global bond market as it successfully sold €3 billion worth of five-year government bonds at a yield of 4.95%.[24] Greece's credit rating was upgraded by Fitch from B− to B.[25] Greece returned to growth after six years of economic decline in the second quarter of 2014,[26][27] and was the eurozone's fastest-growing economy in the third quarter. Tourism also grew. It is estimated that throughout 2013 Greece welcomed over 17.93 million tourists, an increase of 10% compared to 2012. More than 22 million tourists visited Greece in 2014.[28] On healthcare,Minister for HealthAdonis Georgiadis gave complete free pharmaceutical coverage to more than 2.000.000 uninsured citizens,[29][30] with the cost being set at 340 million euros.
On 9 December 2014, Samaras announced the candidacy of New Democracy politicianStavros Dimas for the position ofPresident of Greece. Dimas failed to secure the required majority of MPs of theHellenic Parliament in the first three rounds of voting. According to the provisions of theConstitution of Greece,snap elections were held on 25 January 2015, which were won by Syriza. Tsipras succeeded Samaras, who resigned as Leader of New Democracy on 5 July 2015, following the overwhelming victory of the "No" vote in thebailout referendum, namingVangelis Meimarakis as transitional leader.[31] Samaras had been backing a "Yes" vote, together with his party, before the referendum.
In 2023, Samaras made controversial statements against theLGBTQI+ community, suggesting that LGBTQI+ rights have no place in Europe. He also disputedgender identity, arguing that onlybiological gender is real, and made xenophobic remarks against migrants, claiming that "they are tearingEurope apart". These remarks drew public backlash, with the Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, failing to condemn them, stating that as a former Prime Minister, he has every right to express himself however he sees fit.[32][33][34]
On 16 November 2024, Samaras was expelled from New Democracy after he criticised foreign ministerGiorgos Gerapetritis and his handling of negotiations with Turkey as well as the handling of previous issues by the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview with the newspaperTo Vima.[35] In response Samaras accused Mitsotakis of "arrogance and loss of nerve" in removing him. Also stated that "no one can force me to sacrifice my conscience", accused the prime minister of being cut off from the ND base and stressed that "the judge of all of us will be the people and history".[36]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 1989 | Succeeded by Georgios Agapitos |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs 1990–1992 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Minister of Culture 2009 | Succeeded byas Minister of Culture and Tourism |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 2009–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 2012–2015 | |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 2015 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Position established | President ofPolitical Spring 1993–2004 | Position abolished |
| Preceded by | President ofNew Democracy 2009–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded byas former Prime Minister | Order of precedence of Greece Former Prime Minister | Succeeded byas former Prime Minister |
Leaders ofNew Democracy | ||
|---|---|---|
|  | |
§ interim leader | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
