Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician who has been prime minister of Greece since June 2023 and before from July 2019 to May 2023.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis was born in Athens on 4 March 1968, the son of Marika (née Giannoukou) and former Greek prime minister and New Democracy president Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

At the time of his birth, his family had been placed under house arrest by the Greek military junta that had declared his father persona non grata and imprisoned him on the night of the coup.

In 1968, when he was six months old, the family escaped to Turkey with the help of Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil.

After a while, they moved from Turkey to Paris and waited until 1974 to return to Greece after democracy had been restored.

Mitsotakis controversially described the first six months of his life as political imprisonment.

In 1986, Mitsotakis graduated from Athens College.

From 1986 to 1990, he attended Harvard University and earned a bachelor's degree in social studies, receiving the Hoopes Prize.

Later, his senior thesis was published as a book titled «The Pitfalls of Foreign Policy» receiving mixed reviews.

He is the son of the late Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who was Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993.

From 1990 to 1991 Kyriakos Mitsotakis worked as a financial analyst at the corporate finance division of Chase Bank in London.

From 1991 to 1992, Mitsotakis returned to Greece and joined the Hellenic Army to fulfil his mandatory national service obligations.

From 1992 to 1993, he attended Stanford University, earning a Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy.

From 1993 to 1995, he attended Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA.

From 1995 to 1997, and following the completion of his post-graduate studies, he was employed by the consultancy McKinsey & Company in London, focusing primarily on the telecommunications and financial services industries.

From 1997 to 1999 he worked for Alpha Ventures, a private equity subsidiary of Alpha Bank, as a senior investment officer, executing venture capital and private equity transactions.

In 1999 he founded NBG Venture Capital, the private equity and venture capital subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece, and acted as its CEO, managing its portfolio and executing transactions in Greece and the Balkans, until April 2003, when he resigned to pursue a career in politics.

During the 2000 legislative election, Mitsotakis worked for New Democracy's national campaign.

In January 2003, he was nominated by the World Economic Forum as a global leader of tomorrow.

He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament for the Athens B constituency in 2004.

In the 2004 legislative election, Mitsotakis ran in the Athens B constituency, receiving more votes than any other New Democracy candidate in the country and was elected to the Hellenic Parliament.

Mitsotakis is honorary president of Konstantinos K. Mitsotakis Foundation, aiming at promoting the life and works of Konstantinos Mitsotakis and at reporting the modern political history of Greece.

On 24 June 2013, Mitsotakis was appointed as the Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance in Antonis Samaras' cabinet, succeeding Antonis Manitakis.

After New Democracy suffered two election defeats in 2015, he was elected the party's leader in January 2016.

He is president of the New Democracy party since 2016.

On 26 June 2023, Mitsotakis won a second term as prime minister after winning the June 2023 Greek legislative election.

Mitsotakis previously was Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2019, and Minister of Administrative Reform from 2013 to 2015.

Three years later, he led his party to a majority in the 2019 Greek legislative election.

Following the May 2023 Greek legislative election in which no party won a majority and no coalition government was formed by any of the parties eligible to do so, Mitsotakis called for another snap election in June.

On 24 May 2023, as required by Greece's constitution, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou appointed Ioannis Sarmas to be the caretaker prime minister for the interim period.

One month later he once again led his party to a majority in the June 2023 Greek legislative election and was sworn in as prime minister has been receiving the order to form a government from the President.

During his term as prime minister, Mitsotakis has received both praise and criticism for his governance, economic measures, and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece.

However, academics and government advisors have pointed out Greece's failures during the pandemic in addressing healthcare system shortcomings, which have led to excess deaths.

He has been credited with the digital transformation of the country's public administration, and has been commended for furthering LGBT rights in Greece through the legalization of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.

He has also been remarked for his management of the Greek economy, with Greece being named the Top Economic Performer for 2022 by The Economist.

He has also received criticism for his handling of migration and the numbers of pushbacks, which his government has denied despite mounting evidence.

Additionally, Mitsotakis has been criticised for heightened corruption during his term, as well as a deterioration of freedom of the press in Greece.

His term was impacted by the 2022 wiretapping scandal, the Tempi Train crash, and the wildfires in 2021 and 2023.

On February 7, 2024, Members of the European Parliament approved a resolution addressing concerns over the state of the rule of law in Greece.

The resolution highlighted various issues, including alleged harassment of journalists, privacy violations, wiretapping of political opponents, excessive use of police force, conflicts of interest, corruption, smear campaigns against civil society, and reported incidents of pushbacks of migrants.