George Andreas Papandreou

George Papandreou
President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Incumbent
Assumed office  February, 2004
Preceded by	Kostas Simitis
President of the Socialist International
Incumbent
Assumed office  2006
Preceded by	António Guterres
Born	June 16 1952 (1952--) (age 55) St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party	Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Greek Orthodox

For George Papandreou's grandfather, also called George Papandreou, see George Papandreou, senior.

Georgios Andreas Papandreou (Greek: Γιώργος Ανδρέα Παπανδρέου) (born June 16, 1952), Greek-American politician, has been leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party since February 2004. The son and grandson of Greek prime ministers, he was Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs two times (1988-1989 and 1994-1996) and Minister of the Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004. In 2006 he became President of the Socialist International.

Background

Papandreou was born in St Paul, Minnesota, in the United States, where his father, Andreas Papandreou, then held a university post. His mother is American-born Margaret Papandreou, née Chant. He was educated at schools in Toronto Canada, at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Stockholm University, the London School of Economics (LSE), and finally at Harvard University. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Amhest and a master's degree in sociology from the LSE. He was a researcher in immigration issues at Stockholm University in 1972-73. He was also a Fellow of the Foreign Relations Centre of the Harvard University in 1992-93. Apart from Greek and English he is also fluent in Swedish. Due to his family, unlike other Greeks, he never had to do his obligatory military service.

Papandreou's educational career reflected the movements of his father, who had been exiled from Greece for political reasons in 1939 and did not return until 1959. His grandfather, the elder George Papandreou, was twice Prime Minister of Greece. The younger George did not start thinking about settling in Greece until after the restoration of Greek democracy in 1974. He then became active in his father's party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). As the son of the party leader he had a rapid rise, joining the Central Committee of PASOK in 1984, but few inside the party dared to dispute his ability.

Entry into politics

Papandreou was elected to the Greek Parliament in 1981 the year his father became Prime Minister; he was given the secure PASOK constituency of Achaea. He became Under Secretary for Cultural Affairs in 1985, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs in 1988, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1993, Minister for Education and Religious Affairs again in 1994, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs again in 1996 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 1999. He was also Minister Responsible for Government Coordinator for the Bid for 2004 Olympic Games in 1997.

In the last years of his father's life, Papandreou's loyalty was severely strained when his father divorced his mother to marry Dimitra Liani, an Olympic Airways hostess. Papandreou was estranged from his father, but their political relationship did not seem to suffer. When Andreas Papandreou died in 1996, George delivered a generous tribute at his funeral, but ensured that Margaret, not Dimitra, was treated as Andreas's widow.

Papandreou received numerous awards and honorary degrees in recognition of his work for human rights. As Foreign Minister he abandoned the sometimes inflammatory nationalist rhetoric of his father and fostered closer relations with Turkey, Albania with which Greece had traditionally hostile relations. He worked without success to solve the dispute over Cyprus; his efforts helped bring together the Annan Plan. Papandreou was unwilling to make concessions on Greece's fundamental position that Cyprus must be reunited, but he accepted that this could not lead to a normal unitary state. However, he was the one who made it possible for Cyprus to enter the European Union and become a full member of the E.U family in 2004. He also worked to repair the damage of the Macedonia crisis of the early 1990s.

In the 2007 general election, Papandreou failed to defeat incumbent Kostas Karamanlis.

Party leadership

Greece is a country where dynastic politics have a long tradition, and it was widely expected that Papandreou would eventually succeed Costas Simitis as leader of PASOK and become Prime Minister himself. In January 2004 Simitis announced his resignation as leader of PASOK and passed the crown of leadership to Papandreou by recommending him as the new leader. A few days later, Papandreou demanded and achieved the resignation of ten parliamentary deputies in response to a recent scandal^[1] before his official appointment as the leader of the socialist party. On February 8, PASOK organized a great public election where Papandreou achieved the majority of votes but without an opponent.

Simitis hoped that choosing Papandreou as leader would allow the party to regain the political initiative over the opposition New Democracy party and reverse its slide in the opinion polls. But when the parliamentary elections were held on March 7, PASOK was defeated, and New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis became Prime Minister. Papandreou remains party leader and leader of the opposition. Having said this, it is useful to remember that one of the reasons for PASOK`s electoral setback was the fact that, while minister of education back in the late 80`s, Papandreou had advocated legalization of marijuana, having declared in the press of the time that he himself had been a heavy drug user while in college. This admission never stood well with the conservative Greek public, and contributed to PASOK losing many points in the elections of 2004.

In December 2003 European Voice in the publication "The Europeans of the Year" named him as "The Bridge-Builder" and "Diplomat of the Year". [1]. Le Monde has called him the "architect of Greek-Turkish rapprochement". He is a founding member of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly.

In May 2005 Papandreou was elected Vice President of the Socialist International following a proposal by the former President, António Guterres, at the second day of session of the Council of Socialist International held in Ramallah (Palestinian Territories). In January 2006 he was unanimously elected President of the Socialist International, a post for which he was the only candidate.

George A. Papandreou in his office

In the light of his failure to lead PASOK to victory in the 2007 general election, Papandreou is now facing a leadership challenge from Evangelos Venizelos and Kostas Skandalides.

Personal

Papandreou and his wife Ada have a daughter, Margarita-Elena. Papandreou also has a son, Andreas (born 1982) from a previous marriage. He also has two younger brothers, Nikos Papandreou and Andrikos Papandreou, and a younger sister Sophia Papandreou.

References

External links

• Official site
• Personal blog
• Profile by Athens News Agency in English
• Profile by Macedonian Press Agency in Greek
• Acceptance speech at the Socialist International Conference (Athens 2006)

See also

• Politics of Greece

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