Dora Bakoyannis

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Dora Bakoyannis
120th Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece
Incumbent
Assumed office  February 14, 2006
Prime Minister	Kostas Karamanlis
Preceded by	Petros Molyviatis
75th Mayor of Athens
In office October 20, 2002 – February 14, 2006
Preceded by	Dimitris Avramopoulos
Succeeded by	Fotini Pipili
15th Minister for Culture of Greece
In office December 3, 1992 – October 13, 1993
Preceded by	Anna Psarouda-Benaki
Succeeded by	Melina Mercouri
Born	May 6, 1954 (1954-05-06) (age 54) Athens, Greece
Nationality	Greek
Political party	New Democracy
Spouse	Pavlos Bakoyannis (1974-1989) Isidoros Kouvelos (1998-present)
Children	Alexia Bakoyannis Kostas Bakoyannis
Residence	Athens
Religion	Greek Orthodox
Website	www.dorabak.gr

Dora Bakoyannis (Greek: Ντόρα Μπακογιάννη, born Theodora Mitsotakis) (May 6, 1954) is a Greek politician, the current Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece and former Mayor of Athens. She was the first woman mayor of Athens in the city's history,^[1] the only elected woman mayor of the Greek capital so far, and also the first woman to serve as Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, the highest government position yet held by a female Greek politician.^[2]

Contents 1 Personal life 1.1 Early life 1.2 Entry into politics and family 2 Political Life 2.1 Early political career and Minister for Culture 2.2 Years in opposition 2.3 Mayor of Athens 2.4 Minister for Foreign Affairs 3 Awards and honors 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Early life

Bakoyannis was born in Athens, to a Greek political family dynasty. She is the eldest of four children of the veteran Greek politician Constantine Mitsotakis, former Prime Minister of Greece and former leader of the country's centre-right party, New Democracy, and of Marika Mitsotakis, nee Giannoukou. During her early school years she attended the German School of Athens and completed her secondary schooling in at the German School of Paris, from which she graduated in 1972. She studied Political Science and Communication at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and continued her academic studies in the Faculty of Public Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, graduating in 1976. She is fluent in English, French and German.

[edit] Entry into politics and family

In 1968, the Mitsotakis family was exiled to Paris by the military dictatorship that ruled Greece for seven years from 1967 to 1974. They returned to Athens in 1974, when military rule collapsed. In December of the same year she married journalist and politician Pavlos Bakoyannis and gave birth to two children, Alexia and Kostas. In 1977, she took examinations at the Ministry of Coordination and was appointed at the Ministry of Economic Coordination in the Department of the European Economic Community affairs. When her father was elected leader of the New Democracy party in 1984, she became his chief of staff until 1989.

On September 26, 1989, members of the Revolutionary Organization 17 November assassinated Pavlos Bakoyannis, who had been elected a Member of Parliament in the June 1989 election, as he entered his office building. Dora Bakoyannis is currently married to businessman Isidoros Kouvelos since 1998, although still retaining her late husband's name according to Greek law.

[edit] Political Life

[edit] Early political career and Minister for Culture

In the November 1989 election, Bakoyannis successfully contested her late husband's seat in the Evrytania constituency and was re-elected a Member of the Hellenic Parliament in the 1990 election and served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, following the election of her father as Prime Minister of Greece. From September 1991 to August 1992, she served as the General Secretariat of International Affairs for New Democracy and represented the party at the European Democrat Union and the International Democrat Union. Since December 1992, she served as Minister for Culture of Greece until the 1993 election, when she was re-elected a Member of the Parliament, but New Democracy became the main opposition party.

[edit] Years in opposition

On April 29, 1994, she was elected in the Central Committee of New Democracy, and in the 1996 election, as a candidate for the Athens A' electoral district, Bakoyannis was elected first of all the party's candidates in it, something that repeated in the 2000 election. Meanwhile, on March 22, 1997, she was elected again in the Central Committee and also served as the chairperson of the party’s Executive Committee later. In September 1997, she was appointed by New Democracy leader, Kostas Karamanlis, as party's representative for Development, and in May 2000, representative for Foreign Affairs and Defence.

[edit] Mayor of Athens

On March 29, 2002, Kostas Karamanlis, looking for a way to demonstrate his party's growing strength against the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement in the local elections, picked Bakoyannis to run for Mayor of Athens. She led a large field of candidates and not being able to secure the win in the first round, she was elected Athens' first female mayor in the city's 3,500-year history,^[1] defeating her Socialist opponent, Christos Papoutsis, in the second round, receiving a percentage of 60.6% (some misleadingly claim that it was the higher ever achieved by a mayor of Athens failing to mention that it only happened in the second round). As mayor, Bakoyannis was heavily involved in the organizing of the 2004 Summer Olympics and was the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting the Olympic Games.^[1]

[edit] Minister for Foreign Affairs

She left office and was replaced by acting mayor Fotini Pipili, to become Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece in the Karamanlis Cabinet, on February 15, 2006, retaining the position also after the 2007 election, managing to be elected first in the Athens A' constituency for once more. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bakoyannis assumed the rotating Greek presidency of the United Nations Security Council in September 2006, at a time of international tensions over nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and amidst a fragile United Nations brokered cease-fire in Lebanon, traveled through the Middle East to help outline solutions to problems and promotes cooperation in the Balkans, where Greek companies are heavily investing. She also attended meetings of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to discuss developments in the region.^[2]

[edit] Awards and honors

In March 1992, the International Centre for Women awarded Dora Bakoyannis the International Leadership Award, and in June 1993, she was recognised by the 14th International Symposium Fontana di Roma for her valuable contribution to culture. In 2003, upon the invitation of Romano Prodi, then President of the European Commission, Bakoyannis joined a group of 12 high-level independent figures from Europe, as a member of a prestigious round-table conference, contributing proposals on the social character, cultural identity and economic future of new Europe.

In December 2005, she received the honor of being elected World Mayor, from a list of 550 mayors from around the world, in the internet-based contest organised by City Mayors, receiving the greatest number of votes and most positive comments, while Dora Bakoyannis was included in the Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006^[3] and 2007.^[4]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Dora Bakoyannis' Official Website (Greek)
• Dora Bakoyannis' biography in Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site
• Dora Bakoyannis, Mayor of Athens, wins the 2005 World Mayor Award
• Ministry of Interior, official results of the Athens municipal elections of 2002.

Preceded by Anna Psarouda-Benaki	Minister for Culture 1992–1993	Succeeded by Melina Mercouri
Preceded by Dimitris Avramopoulos	Mayor of Athens 2002–2006	Succeeded by Nikitas Kaklamanis
Preceded by Petros Molyviatis	Minister for Foreign Affairs 2006–	Succeeded by Incumbent