Konstantinos Mitsotakis

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Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Κωνσταντίνος Μητσοτάκης
George Rallis
Succeeded byIoannis Boutos [el]
In office
17 September 1965 – 22 December 1966
Prime MinisterStefanos Stefanopoulos
Preceded byDimitrios Papaspirou [el]
Succeeded byIoannis Paraskevopoulos
Personal details
Born(1918-10-18)18 October 1918
Halepa, Kingdom of Greece
Died29 May 2017(2017-05-29) (aged 98)
Athens, Greece
Political partyLiberal (1946–1961)
Centre Union (1961–1974)
Independent (1974–1977)
New Liberal (1977–1978)
New Democracy (1978–2017)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1953; died 2012)​
Children
Alexandra
Katerina
Alma materUniversity of Athens

Konstantinos Mitsotakis (

University of Athens. His son, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was elected as the Prime Minister of Greece following the 2019 Greek legislative election
.

Family and personal life

Mitsotakis was born on 31 October 1918

Greek Parliament (1915–20) and leader of the Cretan volunteers fighting with the Greek army in the First Balkan War, married Stavroula Ploumidaki, daughter of Charalambos Ploumidakis [el], the first Christian mayor of Chania and an MP at the time of the Cretan State, himself a first cousin of Eleftherios Venizelos.[4]

Mitsotakis was married to

Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2009. His second daughter Alexandra Mitsotakis Gourdain is a Greek civil society
activist. His third daughter is Katerina Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis's interests outside politics included Cretan antiquities and a passion for preserving the environment. He developed a large collection of Minoan and other Cretan antiquities, which he and his wife donated to the Greek state. He was also very interested in promoting reforesting of Greece, including in particular the mountains of Crete.

Venizelos/Mitsotakis family tree

Main members of the Venizelos/Mitsotakis/Bakoyannis family.[7] Prime Ministers of Greece are highlighted in light blue.
Kyriakos Venizelos [la]
(?–1883)		Styliani Ploumidaki
(1830–1897)
Eleftherios Venizelos
(1864–1936)		Katingo Venizelou
(1858–1934)		Constantine "Costis" Mitsotakis [el]
(1845–1898)
Kyriakos Venizelos [el]
(1892–1942)		Sofoklis Venizelos
(1894–1964)		Kyriakos Mitsotakis [el]
(1892–1942)		Stavroula Ploumidaki[8]
(1896–1983)
Nikitas Venizelos
(1930–2020)		Konstantinos Mitsotakis
(1918–2017)		Marika Giannoukou
(1930–2012)
Pavlos Bakoyannis
(1935–1989)		Dora Bakoyannis
née Mitsotaki
(b. 1954)		Kyriakos Mitsotakis
(b. 1968)
Kostas Bakoyannis
(b. 1978)

Political career

Mitsotakis was elected to the

Turkish foreign minister İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil and lived in exile with his family in Paris, France, until his return to Greece in 1974, following the restoration of democracy
.

In

Constantine Karamanlis's New Democracy (ND) party. He served as Minister for Coordination from 1978 to 1980, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs
from 1980 to 1981.

The ND government was defeated by

PASOK in 1981, and in 1984 Mitsotakis succeeded Evangelos Averoff
as ND leader. He and Andreas Papandreou, the son of Georgios Papandreou, dominated Greek politics for the next decade: their mutual dislike dated back to the fall of Georgios Papandreou's government in 1965.

Mitsotakis soundly defeated Papandreou, embroiled in the Bank of Crete scandal, in the June 1989 election. PASOK lost 36 seats in one of the largest defeats of a sitting government in modern Greek history. However, in a controversial move, Papandreou's government had modified the election system just two months earlier, to require a party to win 50 percent of the vote in order to govern alone. Thus, even though ND was the clear first-place party, with 20 more seats than PASOK, it only won 44 percent of the vote, leaving it six seats short of a majority.

Mitsotakis with Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González in 1990

After Mitsotakis failed to garner enough support to form a government,

Yannis Grivas became acting prime minister and presided over new elections in November 1989. This election yielded the same result as in June. ND finished 20 seats ahead of PASOK, but only won 46.2 percent of the vote and came up three seats short of a majority. Former Bank of Greece president Xenophon Zolotas became interim prime minister and presided over fresh elections in April 1990. The result was the same as the two 1989 elections. ND won a landslide victory, finishing 27 seats ahead of PASOK. However, Mitsotakis was still unable to govern alone, as ND won 150 seats, one short of a majority. Finally, the lone MP from Democratic Renewal
agreed to a coalition with ND, allowing Mitsotakis to form government by one seat.

In social policy family benefits were introduced for families with 3 children or more. IKA pension replacement rates, however, were reduced from 80% to 60%, while the retirement age was raised to 65 for both men and women who entered the workforce in 1993.[9]

Mitsotakis with Turkish Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel with in the World Economic Forum in Davos, in 1 February 1992.

Mitsotakis's government moved swiftly to cut government spending as much as possible,

Cyprus dispute
a prerequisite for improvement on other issues.

Papandreou, cleared of charges arising from the Bank of Crete scandal in a 7–6 vote at the Eidiko Dikastirio (Special Court), criticised Mitsotakis's government for its economic policies, for not taking a sufficiently strict position over the

Republic of Macedonia (Mitsotakis favored a composite name such as "Nova Macedonia", for which he was accused at the time of being too lenient) as well as over Cyprus, and for being too pro-American. The heightened public irritation over the Macedonia naming issue caused several ND parliament members, led by Antonis Samaras, to withdraw their support from Mitsotakis's government and form a new political party, Political Spring (Πολιτική Άνοιξη , Politiki Anixi). Mitsotakis' government restored the pre-1989 electoral system, which allowed Papandreou's PASOK to obtain a clear parliamentary majority after winning the premature 1993 elections
and return to office. Mitsotakis then resigned as ND leader, although he remained the party's honorary chairman.

In January 2004 Mitsotakis announced that he would retire from Parliament at the 7 March election, 58 years after his first election.

Death

Mitsotakis died on 29 May 2017 in Athens, aged 98 of natural causes[10][11][12] Four days of national mourning were declared.[13] His state funeral was held on 31 May 2017 and he was buried in Chania.[14][15]

Honours[16]

References

  1. ^ "Διατελέσαντες Πρωθυπουργοί". 27 December 2016.
  2. ISBN 978-1-907301-53-7
    .
  3. ^ "Ίδρυμα Κωνσταντίνος Κ. Μητσοτάκης - Ρίζες - Νεανικά Χρόνια - Αντίσταση". www.ikm.gr. Archived from the original on 1 June 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  4. ^ Constantine Mitsotakis institute. "Biography - Roots". Archived from the original on 2 September 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  5. ^ Papapostolou, Anastasios (6 May 2012). "Former First Lady of Greece Marika Mitsotakis Dies at 82". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  6. ^ a b Papapostolou, Anastasios (6 May 2012). "Marika Mitsotakis, wife of former Greek PM, dies Dies at 82". Boston.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 26 May 2012.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ Constantine Mitsotakis institute. "Biography – Roots". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  8. ^ Stavroula Ploumidaki is also a first cousin, once removed, of Eleftherios Venizelos
  9. ^ Ideologues, Partisans and Loyalists Ministers and Policymaking in Parliamentary Cabinets by Despina Alexiadou
  10. ^ "Former Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis dies aged 98". Reuters. 29 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Constantine Mitsotakis, Who Forged Greek-EU Ties, Dies at 98". Bloomberg.com. 29 May 2017 – via www.bloomberg.com.
  12. ^ "Constantine Mitsotakis, Former Prime Minister of Greece, Dies at 98". The New York Times. 29 May 2017.
  13. ^ Τριήμερο εθνικό πένθος: Τι είναι και τι προβλέπει - Πότε κηρύσσεται
  14. ^ Makris, A. (31 May 2017). "Thousands Attend Konstantinos Mitsotakis' Funeral Service in Athens - GreekReporter.com".
  15. ^ "Funeral Service for Constantine Mitsotakis at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens: (Video & Photo Gallery) - The National Herald". www.thenationalherald.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  16. ^ Some derived from photograpic coverage of his funeral [1] [2]
  17. ^ "It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours". www.itsanhonour.gov.au.
  18. ^ "Arkkipiispa Johannekselle Kreikan arvokkain kunniamerkki". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). 11 May 1991. p. A 4.

Further reading

  • Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 318–23.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Konstantinos Mitsotakis.
Political offices
Preceded by
Minister of Finance

1963 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister of Finance

1964–1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Minister of Finance

1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Coordination
1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Coordination
1965–1966 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
George Rallis
 Minister of Coordination
1978–1980 		Succeeded by
Minister of Foreign Affairs
1980–1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Greece
1990–1993 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of the Aegean
1991–1993 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Foreign Affairs
1992 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by President of New Democracy
1984–1993 		Succeeded by
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