Theodoros Pangalos

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For the general with this name, see Theodoros Pangalos (general).

Theodoros Pangalos (Greek Θεόδωρος Πάγκαλος) (born August 17, 1938 in Eleusina, Greece) is a Greek politician. Pangalos was actively involved against the 1967 military dictatorship, and in 1968, the junta deprived him of his Greek citizenship. In 1981 he was elected a PASOK MP for the first time; he was re-elected in the 2004 general election.

He is the grandson of general and 1926 dictator Theodoros Pangalos. Between 1996 and 1999 he was Minister for Foreign Affairs. He resigned in 1999, after the Kurdish nationalist leader Abdullah Öcalan illegally entered and left Greece and was eventually arrested leaving the Greek embassy at Nairobi. Pangalos is famous for his colourful language and his nonchalant comments about foreign dignitaries. He described the Turkish establishment as "murderers, rapists and thieves" in the midst of disagreements over the Turkish candidacy for entry into the European Union, in 1997.[1] [2] [3] Six months earlier, Pangalos had, in sharp contrast to his later statements, declared that "Turkey certainly belongs in Europe, as it is a part of European history".[4]

He is also known to regularly express opinions which contradict the official stance of PASOK while he has used strong language against numerous politicians including Georgios Alogoskoufis, current Minister for Economy and Finance with the New Democracy party.

He was briefly made Minister for Culture in 2000, an appointment which was widely criticized, in view of his previous statement that artists who had protested his handling of the Öcalan affair were 'kouradomanges' (turd tough guys). [5]

According to the PASOK-leaning To Vima daily, Pangalos resolved an administrative dispute with a Greek diplomatic official by "punching him to the ground" when the employee in question offered a handshake.[6]

Pangalos has on a number of occasions proclaimed his Arvanitic origins, especially during his spell as Foreign Minister in the troubled 1990s to western foreign journalists when it was fashionable to identify minorities. Pangalos, often with a smile on his face and a sigh in his voice, would tell them that to be an 'Arvanite' was to be Greek.