Vangelis Meimarakis

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Evangelos "Vangelis" Meimarakis (Greek: Ευάγγελος "Βαγγέλης" Μεϊμαράκης) (born December 14, 1953) is a Greek lawyer and politician and the current Minister of National Defence.

He was born in Athens. Meimarakis joined New Democracy in 1974. He was involved in student union politics while at Panteion University and was a founding member of ONNED, the New Democracy youth organisation. He was appointed chairman of the ONNED Executive Committee in 1984, and led the organisation to its 1st Conference in March 1987. He has been a member of the New Democracy Central Committee since the 2nd Party Conference in Thessaloniki. He was elected MP for the Athens B constituency for New Democracy in the general elections of 1989 (June and November), 1990, 1993, 1996 and 2000. He served as Deputy Minister for Culture (Sports) from 1992 to 1993. He was general secretary of New Democracy until his appointment as Defence Minister on February 15, 2006. He is married to Ioanna Kolokota and has two daughters.