Vangelis Meimarakis
Βαγγέλης Μεϊμαράκης
Official portrait, 2024
Leader of the Opposition
In office 5 July 2015 – 24 November 2015
Prime Minister	Alexis Tsipras Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou (caretaker) Alexis Tsipras
Preceded by	Antonis Samaras
Succeeded by	Ioannis Plakiotakis
President of New Democracy
In office 5 July 2015 – 24 November 2015
Deputy	Stavros Dimas Dimitris Avramopoulos
Preceded by	Antonis Samaras
Succeeded by	Ioannis Plakiotakis
10thSpeaker of the Hellenic Parliament
In office 29 June 2012 – 6 February 2015
President	Karolos Papoulias
Preceded by	Vyron Polydoras
Succeeded by	Zoi Konstantopoulou
Minister for National Defence
In office 15 February 2006 – 7 October 2009
Prime Minister	Kostas Karamanlis
Preceded by	Spilios Spiliotopoulos
Succeeded by	Evangelos Venizelos
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
In office 18 June 1989 – 25 April 2019
Constituency	Athens B
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 July 2019
Constituency	Greece
Personal details
Born	(1953-12-14)14 December 1953 (age 71) Athens,Greece
Political party	New Democracy
Spouse	Ioanna Kolokota
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Athens Panteion University
Profession	Politician Lawyer

Evangelos-Vasileios "Vangelis"Meimarakis (Greek:Ευάγγελος-Βασίλειος "Βαγγέλης" Μεϊμαράκης,pronounced[eˈvaɲɟelosvaˈsili.osvaɲˈɟelismei̯maˈracis]; born 14 December 1953) is a Greek politician who served as the acting President ofNew Democracy andLeader of the Opposition in Greece from 5 July to 24 November 2015, competing as the challenger to Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras in theSeptember 2015 Greek legislative election. He lost in the run-off of theNew Democracy leadership election, 2015–16. Since 2019, he has been aMember of the European Parliament.

Meimarakis previously served as theSpeaker of the Hellenic Parliament from 2012 to 2014 and asMinister for National Defence from 2006 to 2009. He was a Member of theHellenic Parliament forAthens B from 1989 until 2019.

Meimarakis was born inAthens and is ofCretan descent. His father was aMember of the Hellenic Parliament with ERE representingHeraklion.^[1]

Meimarakis joinedNew Democracy in 1974 as a student atPanteion University. That year, he helped found theYouth Organisation of New Democracy (ONNED).^[1]

Meimarakis was appointed chairman of the ONNED Executive Committee in 1984, and led the organisation to its 1st Conference in March 1987. He has been a member of the New Democracy Central Committee since the 2nd Party Conference in 1986.^[2]

He was first elected as a New DemocracyMember of the Hellenic Parliament representingAthens B in the general elections of 1989 (June and November). He has since been reelected in 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000.

Meimarakis was one of New Democracy's parliamentary representatives from 1991 to 1992.^[1][2] He served as Deputy Minister for Sports from 1992 to 1993. In March 2001, at New Democracy's 5th Conference, he was elected as Secretary of the Central Committee, the first person to hold this role. He was reelected as Secretary in July 2004, and remained in this role until 15 February 2006, when he was appointed as theMinister for National Defense in theFirst Cabinet of Kostas Karamanlis.^[2]

On 29 June 2012, he becameSpeaker of the Hellenic Parliament, a position he held until the next Parliament was elected in January 2015.

In July 2015,Antonis Samaras resigned as leader of New Democracy following the 'No' vote in thebailout referendum. Meimarakis took over from Samaras as an interim leader.^[3] In this capacity he led the party into the snapelection on 20 September 2015, at which New Democracy were defeated for a second time in nine months bySYRIZA.^[4] Meimarakis did however succeed in slightly increasing the ND vote share from 27.8% to 28.1%. Despite this, their seat tally dropped from 76 to 75.^[5]

Meimarakis continued as interim leader following the September election, announcing that aNew Democracy leadership election would take place before the end of the year and that he would be a candidate. On 24 November, Meimarakis appointed the secretary of the New Democracy parliamentary group,Ioannis Plakiotakis, as a vice president of the party, before resigning and therefore making Plakiotakis the new interim leader.^[6]

Meimarakis has been aMember of the European Parliament since the2019 European elections. He has since been serving on theCommittee on Foreign Affairs and itsSubcommittee on Security and Defence. Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to theConference on the Future of Europe.^[7]

Within the centre-rightEuropean People's Party Group (EPP), Meimarakis is one of the deputies of chairmanManfred Weber.^[8]

Meimarakis is married to Ioanna Kolokota, the daughter of Greek actressNitsa Marouda, and they have two daughters.^[1] He is fluent in English.^[2]

Meimarakis is seen as down-to-earth, with Vassilis Monastiriotis of theLondon School of Economics commenting that he appeals to: "a broad cross-section: both working-class voters, who see him as a man of the people, and the traditional higher-income New Democracy supporters, who see him as a cunning operator able to hit Tsipras below the belt".^[3]

• Terms of office ofVangelis Meimarakis at theHellenic Parliament(in English)

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