Dora Bakoyannis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dora Bakoyannis with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Dora Bakoyannis (née Mitsotakis) (Greek: Ντόρα Μπακογιάννη) (born 6 May 1954) is the Greek Foreign Affairs Minister and former Mayor of Athens. She was the first woman mayor of Athens and is the first woman to serve as Greek Foreign Affairs Minister which makes her the first women ever appointed to a senior cabinet position in Greece. She is currently the highest ranking woman in the history of the Greek Government. It is a widely held notion among Greeks that she may one day become Greece's first female prime minister. At a height of more than six feet (i.e. 1 metre and 83 centimetres)[1], she also stands out physically among her fellow countrywomen.

She is the eldest of four children of veteran Greek politician Constantine Mitsotakis, who was Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993 and leader of the country's conservative party, New Democracy, from 1984 to 1993. During her early school years she attended the German School of Athens and Paris. Bakoyannis studied political science and public law at the University of Athens, and politics and communication in Munich. She is fluent in English, French and German.

In 1968, the Mitsotakis family fled to Paris to escape the military dictatorship that ruled Greece for seven years from 1967. They returned to Athens in 1974 when military rule collapsed. That same year she married Pavlos Bakoyiannis, a respected journalist and politician. They had two children, Alexia and Kostas. Over the next several years she worked in the Ministry of Economic Co-ordination and, later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When her father was elected leader of the New Democracy party in 1984, she became his chief of staff.

In 1989, members of the "November 17" terrorist group assassinated her husband, Pavlos Bakoyiannis, then a Member of Parliament, as he entered his office building.

When her father was elected Prime Minister the following year, Bakoyannis served first as an Undersecretary of State, and then as Culture Minister. She was elected three times as Member of Parliament for Evritania, and later for Athens, by a sweeping majority. When New Democracy lost the 1993 elections and her father resigned, she successfully ran for a seat in the party central committee. In 2000 the new leader of the party, Kostas Karamanlis, appointed her shadow foreign and defence minister. She is now married to businessman Isidoros Kouvelos. According to Greek family law she is entitled to use any of three surnames – her maiden one, those of her late and current husband, or any combination thereof. She has chosen to use her late husband's.

In June 2002 the investigation against the "November 17" terrorist group intensified, and a series of arrests netted 19 individuals, most of whom have acknowledged being members of the terrorist group. Among them are three men who allegedly confessed to participating in the murder of Pavlos Bakoyiannis.

In the summer of 2002, when Karamanlis was looking for a way to demonstrate his party's growing strength against the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement in local elections, he picked Bakoyannis to run for Mayor of Athens. She led a large field of candidates in the October 2002 elections and not being able to secure the win in the first round, she defeated her Socialist opponent, Christos Papoutsis, in the second round. (Election Results)

She successfully hosted 2004 Olympic Games, and was the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting the Games.

In 2005, she was elected World Mayor and on February 14, 2006 she was appointed by Kostas Karamanlis to serve as Foreign Affairs Minister.

[edit] See also

List of famous tall women

[edit] External links

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