Dimitris Tsovolas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Dimitris Tsovolas (Dimitrios Tsovolas, Greek: Δημήτριος Τσοβόλας) is a politician of Greece.
He was born at Melissourgoi, a village outside Arta, Epirus, Greece in 1942. He studied the Law at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. He worked as a lawyer in Arta from 1970 to 1977.
He later began his career in politics as a member of PASOK. He was first elected member of the Parliament in 1977. He served as the country's Finance Minister in the 1980s during which time he followed controversial policies.
Tsovolas was among those former PASOK ministers indicted in 1989 over fiscal irregularities related to the Koskotas and the Bank of Crete scandals. He was found guilty in 1992. He received suspended jail sentence and was deprived of his political and civil rights for 3 years.
At the end of the sentence in December 1995, he founded a separate party called DIKKI. DIKKI had success in the September 1996 elections and got around 4% of the vote and nine seats by positioning itself as the left-wing, social-democratic, conspiracy-theorist alternative to PASOK. However, the party failed to capitalise on its success and was seen as out of date, out of touch, and out of his mind by most voters in the election of 2000 and 2004. After those last one, Tsovolas has suspended the party's activities and decided to retire from active politics. From 2000 he practices law in Athens.
