Evangelos Venizelos
Greece United Kingdom
Toby Vogel
evangelos venizelos deputy prime minister, minister for foreign affairs
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
POLITICO
The second-in-command of Greece’s government has three roles: leader of centre-left Pasok, the junior partner in the grand coalition; deputy prime minister; and minister for foreign affairs. His influence in the coalition is much greater than Pasok’s strength in parliament – which is down to just 27 seats in the 300-seat chamber. However, Samaras needs those votes, and both parties expect to lose further should there be an early election.

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, in 1957, Evangelos Venizelos studied law at the local Aristotle University, which he joined as a professor of constitutional law after postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne. His student days, in the immediate aftermath of the US-backed military dictatorship that ruled Greece in 1967-74, were overshadowed by tumultuous political change, and Venizelos was active in student politics.

While pursuing his academic career in the 1980s, he served as an attorney at Greece’s supreme court and was elected to the board of directors of the national bank. In 1990, he joined Pasok’s central committee and was elected to the national parliament three years later.

In 1993-95, he was spokesman of the government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, with the rank of minister. In subsequent Pasok governments he served as minister for transport and communications in 1995-96, for justice (1996), for culture and sports (1996-99) and for development, energy, industry, trade, tourism and technology in 1999-2000. In 2000, he took over responsibility for all preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics, again as sports and culture minister.

When Pasok regained power under Prime Minister George Papandreou in 2009, following the fall of the centre-right government of Kostas Karamanlis, Venizelos became defence minister. In June 2011 he was appointed to the crucial job of finance minister and deputy prime minister, which he held until March 2012. After replacing Papandreou as party leader, he returned to the government in June this year, when he became deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

A close observer described him as “a very serious man of intellectual depth” who was too tainted by the past to offer Pasok a way out of its current dismal state.