Eyagelos Venizelos

Evangelos Venizelos was born in Thessaloniki in 1957. Immediately after the restoration of democracy in September 1974, he enrolled in the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During his studies, he actively participated in the student movement and was a member of the Law Students' Association and the Councils of the Student Union of the University of Thessaloniki and the National Student Union of Greece. He graduated from law school in 1978 and pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Paris II. In 1980, he was awarded a Doctorate in Law from the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he was elected as an associate professor in 1984 and later became a professor of Constitutional Law. Concurrently, he practiced law at the Council of State and the Supreme Court of Greece. Among other roles, he served as a member of the board of directors of the National Bank of Greece, the National Center of Public Administration, and the Local Radio Committee (an independent authority responsible for supervising radio stations). Evangelos Venizelos has participated as a speaker in numerous international conferences, symposia, and related events. He is an honorary Doctor of Law from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. His writing includes a large number of books and studies in the fields of constitutional law, political theory, cultural policy, and more. In recent years, alongside his political activities, his writing has focused on constitutional revision, the prospects of a European Constitution, the relationship between State and Church, the "open party" as a form of collective political subject in the post-industrial era, the "Culture of Cultures" as a response to the theory of the "clash of civilizations," the relationship between "Greekness" and "Westernness," and more. In October 1993, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for the First District of Thessaloniki. He was re-elected in the 1996 and 2000 elections. He served as Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesman, Minister of Press and Media, Minister of Transport and Communications, Minister of Justice, Minister of Culture, and Minister of Development (Energy, Industry, Commerce, Tourism, and Technology). In November 2001, he became Minister of Culture for the second time. He was also a member of the Executive Bureau of PASOK. He has been married to Vasiliki Bakatselou since 1980, with whom he has a daughter. He was the rapporteur for the extensive Revision of the Greek Constitution that began in 1996 and was completed in April 2001. His legislative work is particularly rich in the fields of media, justice, energy, culture, etc. Among other things, he proposed the basic law for media, the law for the liberalization of the electricity market, the new law for the protection of antiquities and cultural heritage, etc. In the field of cultural policy, it is worth noting the organization of the Cultural Olympiad in anticipation of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, with a central theme of seeking a "Culture of Cultures." On his initiative, many new cultural institutions were founded, and special emphasis was placed on collaboration with various foreign universities for the development of Greek studies. After the defeat of PASOK in the elections on September 16, 2007 (where he was elected first in votes in the A' Thessaloniki constituency), he announced his intention to run for the leadership of the movement. However, in the internal party elections on November 11, 2007, he did not manage to secure the leadership, as the elections once again appointed George Papandreou as the leader of PASOK. In the general elections on October 4, 2009, he was re-elected as a Member of Parliament for the A' Thessaloniki constituency. On October 7, following PASOK's victory, he was sworn in as Minister of National Defense in George Papandreou's government. In June 2011, the impending vote on the medium-term fiscal adjustment program for 2012-2015 sparked intense social reactions, expressed through large, multi-day demonstrations and a governmental crisis, with resignations and MPs becoming independent. This situation led to the government reshuffle on June 17, with Evangelos Venizelos taking over the Ministry of Finance during a critical period of the Greek debt crisis. He also assumed the role of Deputy Prime Minister. In the national unity government of PASOK-ND-LAOS under Lucas Papademos, which followed George Papandreou's resignation from the premiership in 2011, he retained his position as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. At the PASOK national conference on March 12, 2012, he was declared the sole candidate for the party's presidency, as he was the only one who managed to gather the necessary number of signatures according to the statute. He served as the president of PASOK from 2013 to 2015. During the National Elections of June 2012, there was an agreement between PASOK, ND, and DIMAR to form a Coalition Government, with ND leader Antonis Samaras as Prime Minister. Evangelos Venizelos chose not to include parliamentary members of his party in this government but proposed "independent" figures. However, after DIMAR's withdrawal from the coalition in June 2013, Evangelos Venizelos, along with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, proceeded with a government reshuffle, with Venizelos assuming the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.