Dora Bakoyanni | |
|---|---|
| Ντόρα Μπακογιάννη | |
 Bakoyanni in 2009 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 15 February 2006 – 6 October 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Kostas Karamanlis |
| Preceded by | Petros Molyviatis |
| Succeeded by | George Papandreou |
| Mayor of Athens | |
| In office 1 January 2003 – 14 February 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Dimitris Avramopoulos |
| Succeeded by | Theodoros Bechrakis (acting) |
| Minister for Culture | |
| In office 3 December 1992 – 13 October 1993 | |
| Prime Minister | Konstantinos Mitsotakis |
| Preceded by | Anna Benaki-Psarouda |
| Succeeded by | Melina Mercouri |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Theodora Mitsotaki (1954-05-06)May 6, 1954 (age 71) |
| Political party | New Democracy(Before 2010; 2012–present) Democratic Alliance(2010–2012) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Alexia Kostas |
| Alma mater | University of Munich University of Athens |
| Website | Official website |
Theodora "Dora"Bakoyanni (Greek:Θεοδώρα "Ντόρα" Μπακογιάννη,pronounced[ˈdoɾabakoˈʝani]; néeMitsotaki, Greek:Μητσοτάκη; born May 6, 1954) is aGreekpolitician. From 2006 to 2009 she wasMinister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, the highest position ever to have been held by a woman in theCabinet of Greece at the time; she was also Chairperson-in-Office of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2009. Previously she was theMayor of Athens from 2003 to 2006, the first female mayor in the city's history, and the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting theOlympic Games. She also served asMinister for Culture of Greece from 1992 to 1993.
Bakoyannis has been serving as an independent member of the Hellenic Parliament representing unofficiallyDemocratic Alliance, the political party she founded in 2010, having been expelled from the oppositionNew Democracy party due to voting against the party line. In May 2012, due to the critical situation in Greece before the elections and given the established electoral law, Democratic Alliance decided to cooperate with New Democracy, based on a specific framework of values and to suspend its activities.[1] Dora Bakoyannis rejoined New Democracy on 21 May 2012, ahead of the parliamentary election in June, where she headed the state deputies' ballot.
Bakoyannis was born inAthens in 1954 to a prominentGreek family in the field of politics. She is the eldest of four children of the veteran Greek politicianKonstantinos Mitsotakis, formerPrime Minister of Greece and former leader of country's maincentre-right political party New Democracy, andMarika Mitsotakis (née Giannoukou). Her family originates fromChania,Crete, and has a long tradition in thepolitics 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 brotherKyriakos, is the currentPrime Minister of Greece. She is also a great-granddaughter ofEleftherios Venizelos' sister. This decade-long involvement has been reprehended as attestation for family-rule in Greek political life.
During her early school years, she attended theGerman School of Athens. Her family was exiled toParis by theGreek military junta in 1968, thus she completed her secondary schooling at the German School of Paris. She then studiedpolitical science andcommunication at theLudwig Maximilian University of Munich without graduating. After the collapse of the junta, she returned to Greece and continued her academic studies inpublic law at theNational and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In addition to Greek, Bakoyannis is fluent in English, French and German.
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In theNovember 1989 election, Bakoyannis successfully contested her late husband's seat in theEvrytania constituency and was re-elected a member of the Hellenic Parliament in the1990 election and served as aParliamentary Under-Secretary of State, following the election of her father asPrime Minister of Greece. From September 1991 to August 1992, she served in the General Secretariat of International Affairs for New Democracy and represented the party at theEuropean Democrat Union and theInternational Democrat Union. From December 1992, she served asMinister for Culture of Greece until the1993 election, when she was re-elected a member of Parliament for New Democracy as the main opposition party.
On 29 April 1994, Bakoyannis was elected in the Central Committee of New Democracy by the party's Third Congress. In the1996 election Bakoyannis was a candidate for a first time in the Athens A' electoral district and was elected again as member of Parliament, coming first of all the candidates in it,[2] something that was repeated in the2000 election.[3] Meanwhile, on 22 March 1997, she was elected again to the Central Committee of New Democracy by the party's Fourth Congress. She also served for two terms as the chairperson of the party's Executive Committee later. In September 1997 she was appointed by New Democracy leaderKostas Karamanlis in the party's Department for Development and asShadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence in May 2000.
On 29 March 2002, Bakoyannis was picked to run forMayor of Athens in the2002 local elections, both a choice of Kostas Karamanlis who was looking for a way to demonstrate New Democracy's growing strength against the rulingPanhellenic Socialist Movement and a chance for Bakoyannis to earn prestige by this office in advance of the city hosting the Olympic games. She was elected what was aired as Athens' first female mayor in the city's 3,500-year history,[4] defeating her socialist opponent Christos Papoutsis and receiving a percentage of 60.6% in the runoff. As mayor, she was heavily involved in the preparation of the2004 Athens Olympic Games, the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting theOlympic Games,[4] and passed theOlympic flag to the mayor ofBeijing,Wang Qishan. In 2005 she was awarded theWorld Mayor Prize.[5]
In 2003, upon the invitation ofRomano Prodi, thenPresident of the European Commission, Bakoyannis joined a group of 12 high-level independent figures fromEurope, as a member of a prestigious round-table conference, contributing proposals on the social character, cultural identity and economic future of new Europe.
Bakoyannis left the office of Mayor before the end of her term, replaced by acting mayorFotini Pipili, to becomeMinister of Foreign Affairs of Greece on 15 February 2006 and thus the highest-ranking woman in the history of theCabinet of Greece.[6] She also retained the position after the2007 election, managing to be elected as amember of the Hellenic Parliament first among all the candidates in the Athens A'constituency once more.[7] As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bakoyannis assumed the rotating Greek presidency of theUnited Nations Security Council in September 2006, while at a time of international tensions over nuclear programs inIran andNorth Korea and amidst a fragileUnited Nations brokered cease-fire inLebanon.
During her incumbency, she promoted the cooperation in theBalkans, where Greek companies are heavily investing, traveled through theMiddle East to help outline solutions to problems and attended meetings of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to discuss developments in the region.[6] She also promoted the ratification of theTreaty of Lisbon by the Hellenic Parliament and supportedNicolas Sarkozy's plan about theUnion for the Mediterranean, but did not reach a conciliation withTurkey and theRepublic of Macedonia over theCyprus dispute and theMacedonia naming dispute respectively.[8]
Bakoyannis served as theChairperson-in-Office of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from January 2009 to 6 October 2009. As the political leader of the OSCE, she was responsible for the external representation and the appointments of the Organization. She also oversaw the activities of the OSCE in conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. During her chairmanship, she was assisted by her staff andMarc Perrin de Brichambaut, the Secretary General of the OSCE, as well as by her predecessorAlexander Stubb and successorMarat Tazhin, who both formed along with Bakoyannis the OSCETroika.[9]
Bakoyannis was expelled from New Democracy on May 7, 2010, on the grounds of having defied New Democracy's line and voting "in favor" of a salient piece of legislation introducing the harsh austerity measures that were required forEuropean Union-International Monetary Fund backed lending.[10] She continued to hold her parliamentary seat, originally secured by New Democracy, as an independent. On November 21, 2010, she founded her own political party called theDemocratic Alliance.[11]
A member of the Greek delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2012, Bakoyannis serves as chairwoman of the Sub-Committee on relations with theOECD and theEBRD. She is also a member of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, which she chaired from 2014 to 2016; a member of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments byMember States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee);co-rapporteur for the monitoring ofRussia (alongsideLiliane Maury Pasquier);[12] andrapporteur on theSyrian Civil War.[13] In 2019, she announced her candidacy to succeedThorbjørn Jagland asSecretary General of the Council of Europe.[14] The position was ultimately won by Croatia's Foreign MinisterMarija Pejčinović Burić.
In 2015, Bakoyannis was named a member of the OSCE Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project, chaired byWolfgang Ischinger.[15]
In March 1992, the International Centre for Women awarded Bakoyannis the International Leadership Award, and in June 1993, she was recognised by the 14th International Symposium Fontana di Roma for her valuable contribution to culture.
Bakoyannis received the honor of being electedWorld Mayor in 2005, an annual internet-based project organized byCity Mayors in order to honor the mayors who have served their communities well. Her efforts to get Athens ready to host the2004 Summer Olympics successfully, her actions to transform the city for the benefit of its residents and her fight against terrorism helped Bakoyannis win the award. During the contest she was strongly supported by the Greek community and also received thousands of votes from several countries aroundEurope,North America andAustralia.[18] She had also been continuously included in theForbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women from 2006 to 2008.[19][20][21] In 2008, she was awarded the Emperor Maximilian Award-European Award for Regional Policy and Local Government by theState of Tyrol and the city ofInnsbruck.[22] In 2009, she was named as the first female foreign associate of theFrench Academy in Humanities and Political Sciences.[23] The same year, she was also awarded the title of Honorary Senator by theEuropean Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg.[24] In 2010, Dora Bakoyannis has been awarded the National Order of the Chevalry of theLegion of Honour of the French Republic (Ordre Nationale de Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur).[25]
On 21 March 2008, she received a copy of the key of the city ofTirana on the occasion of her official visit to Albania.[26]
On December 13, 2002, two months after taking office as mayor of Athens, an assassination attempt was made on her by a perpetrator who was considered mentally disturbed.[27][28]
In March 2021, the driver of her guard team killed a 23 year old man outside the Hellenic Parliament and the driver fled so as not to be found. The police drove the eyewitnesses away from the scene of the accident.[29][30][31]
In December 1974, she married journalistPavlos Bakoyannis and later gave birth to their two children, Alexia andKostas. In 1977, she took examinations at theMinistry of Economic Coordination and was appointed in the Department ofEuropean Economic Community Affairs. When her father was elected leader of New Democracy in 1984, she served aschief of staff until 1989. On 26 September 1989, her husband, who had been elected a member of the Hellenic Parliament in theJune 1989 election and was the chief architect for theAndreas Papandreou indictment forKoskotas scandal, was assassinated by members of the terrorist groupRevolutionary Organization 17 November, as he entered his office building.[32][33] She later married businessman Isidoros Kouvelos in 1998, but retains her late husband's surname. Her second husband is currently the president of theHellenic Olympic Committee.
On October 18, 2021, she revealed that she had been diagnosed withmultiple myeloma - a type of cancer of white blood cells.[34]
(in Greek and English)| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Culture 1992–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Mayor of Athens 2003–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 2006–2009 | Succeeded by |
