Kostas Karamanlis

Kóstas Alexándrou Karamanlís
Κωνσταντίνος Αλεξάνδρου Καραμανλής 
MP
Kostas Karamanlis
Prime Minister of Greece
Incumbent
Assumed office 
March 10, 2004
President Karolos Papoulias
Preceded by Costas Simitis
Incumbent
Assumed office 
March 21, 1997
Preceded by Miltiadis Evert
Minister of Culture
In office
March 10, 2004 – February 15, 2006
Preceded by Evangelos Venizelos
Succeeded by Georgios Voulgarakis
Leader of the Official Opposition
In office
March 21, 1997 – March 10, 2004
Preceded by Miltiadis Evert
Succeeded by George Papandreou
Born 14 September 1956 (1956-09-14) (age 53)
Country flag Athens, Greece
Nationality Greek
Political party ND
Spouse Natasa Pazaïti
Children Alexandros and Angeliki
Residence Maximos Mansion, Athens (official)
Alma mater National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Occupation Politician
Profession Lawyer, International Relations expert
Religion Greek Orthodox
This article is about the Greek Prime Minister whose term began in 2004. For his uncle, a former Prime Minister and later President who lived from 1907 to 1998, see Konstantinos Karamanlis.

Konstantínos Alexandrou Karamanlís (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αλεξάνδρου Καραμανλής; (alt. sp. Costas Caramanlis), born September 14 1956) became Prime Minister of Greece on March 10 2004 following his party's victory in the March 7 parliamentary elections. He is the leader of the right-conservative party New Democracy, which his uncle Constantine Karamanlis founded. Kostas Karamanlis won a second term in office in the parliamentary elections that were held on September 16, 2007.

Contents

Political career

Kostas Karamanlis, a nephew of former Greek President Constantine Karamanlis, was born in Athens and studied at University of Athens Law School and at the private Deree College, continuing with postgraduate studies in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the United States, where he gained a master's degree and a doctorate in political sciences, international relations and diplomatic history.

Karamanlis was a member of New Democracy's youth wing - ONNED - and served in ONNED's and New Democracy's organisational and ideological sectors from 1974 to 1979 and from 1984 to 1989. He is the author of the book Eleftherios Venizelos and Foreign Relations of Greece, 1928-32, concerning the Greek figurehead politician Eleftherios Venizelos. He has also edited and prefaced various historical publications.

Karamanlis was elected a New Democracy deputy for Thessaloniki in 1989, but in 2004 he was elected for Larissa. He was elected party leader in 1997 following New Democracy's defeat in the 1996 election. He defeated the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) at the 2004 elections.

He served as Vice President of the European People's Party (EPP) between 1999 and 2006.

Karamanlis is the first ever Greek Prime Minister to be born after World War II. He married Natasa Pazaïti in 1998; they have two children (a boy and a girl who are twins), born on June 13, 2003.

2007 re-election

In the 2007 general election, Karamanlis was re-elected with a diminished majority, following the 2007 Greek forest fires that ravaged much of western Peloponese and southern Euboea. He pledged to continue with his reform and privatization programme as well as form a new Cabinet.

On September 19. 2007, he presented a new cabinet.[1]

Prime Ministerial career

Aided by the unpopularity of the incumbent PASOK government led by Costas Simitis (a party that had been in power between 1981—1989 and from 1993—2004) ND defeated the Socialists' George Andreas Papandreou in 2004. Karamanlis stated that the priorities of his government were education, economic policy, agricultural policy, lowering the high level of unemployment (standing at 11.2%) and a more transparent and effective state administration. Economic policy centered on tax cuts, investment incentives and market deregulation. While early problems included a large public debt (about 112% of GDP) and a budget deficit (5.3% of the GDP) in excess of Eurozone stability rules, Karamanlis's government halved the budget deficit to 2.6% by 2006.

Another key issue was the 2004 Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Athens in the first year of his government: several key buildings were unfinished at the time of the election, the security budget had increased to €970 million and authorities announced that a roof would no longer be constructed over the main swimming venue. The main Olympic Stadium, the designated facility for the opening and closing ceremonies, was completed only two months before the games opened, with the sliding over of a futuristic glass roof designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Other facilities, such as the streetcar line linking the city and the airport were largely unfinished just two months before the games. The subsequent pace of preparation, however, made the rush to finish the Athens venues one of the tightest in Olympics history and everything was finished just on time for the Opening Ceremony. At the end, the Games were held exactly as planned and were globally hailed as a spectacular success. Nonetheless and as a result of the delays, large cost overruns resulted in a deficit in the national accounts above EU stipulations.[2] The ND government and the previous administration of Costas Simitis criticized each other for the messy preparations. PASOK criticized the New Democracy government of having used the Olympics as a pretext to renege on promises. Under the weight of the huge costs (estimated at €7bn), the deficit shot up to 5.3%. Karamanlis declared that "Social policy was done with borrowed cash, military spending did not show up on the budget, debts were created in secret".[3]

Financial audit of 2004

In March 2004, while PASOK was still in government, Eurostat refused to validate the fiscal data transmitted by the Greek government and asked for a revision, as it had done previously -twice- in 2002, then resulting in a revision which changed the government balance from a surplus to a deficit.

A worse blow came in May 2004, when the European Commission harshly accused Greece of "imprudent" and "sloppy" fiscal policies[4], pointing out that since Greek economic growth had been an annual 4% in 2000-2003, a declining fiscal position could only be the result of government mismanagement. With this report, the Commission effectively called into question the quality of Greek economic data, as the Eurostat had done in March.

The New Democracy government under Karamanlis, elected on April of that year, decided to conduct a Financial Audit of the Greek economy, before sending revised data to Eurostat. The audit concluded that the PASOK administration and prime minister Costas Simitis had falsified Greece's macroeconomic statistics, on the basis of which the European institutions accepted Greece to join the Eurozone. PASOK contested the accusations and claimed that 2006 Eurostat changes to the system of defense expenditure calculation[5] legitimized the practices of the Costas Simitis government. New Democracy responded that the defense expenditures covered by those changes constituted only a small part of much more substantial expenditures that were fraudulently concealed by the previous PASOK government.

Rising unemployment and the threat of inflation undermined Karamanlis' promises to kick-start the economy and sparked strikes[6][7][8][9], especially one in 2006 by rubbish collectors[10], causing severe disruption in the economy - particularly the one in July 2005 at the height of the tourist season.

In early 2006, it was revealed that the cellular phone of Costas Karamanlis, as well as those of several other members of the government and officials of the armed forces, had been tapped for several months during and after the 2004 Athens Olympics.[11] The investigation into this matter by the Greek organization for communications privacy is closed with the argument that if this investigation would carry on, the information revealed would be dangerous for the national security of Greece.

The government has undertaken a 210 million euro program to bolster broadband internet connectivity in provincial Greece, which was approved by the European Commission in 2006 with the commendation that it constituted "the most ambitious broadband development program that any EU member has ever undertaken".

In matters of social policy, Karamanlis's government has followed a largely liberal policy. In the spring of 2006, the Ministry of Education repealed a law continuously in effect from 1936 (including 20 years of socialist rule), which required approval by the local Orthodox Christian Metropolitan for the building of non-Orthodox houses of worship.

At the outset of the year, prime minister Karamanlis announced the initiative of his government for a new amendement to the Constitution. He stated that one of the central issues of this amendment will be the legalisation of private universities in Greece, operating on a non-profit basis. Greece has for years experienced a mass exodus of "educational immigrants" to other countries' Higher Education institutions, where they move to study; this creates a chronic problem for Greece, in terms of loss of capital as well as human resources, since many of those students opt to seek employment in the countries they studied, after getting their degrees (it is characteristic Greece is by far the leading country in the world in terms of students abroad as a percentage of the general population, with 5250 students per million, compared to second Malaysia's 1780 students per million inhabitants). Proponents of non-state owned Universities claim that the State's constitutionally mandated monopoly on Higher Education is responsible for these problems.

Attempted changes in Greek higher education have encountered fierce opposition from the other parties, as well as from the majority of the academic community, both professors and students. An attempt to pass several changes concerning the operation of Greek universities resulted in large-scale demonstrations, mounting to tens of thousands protesters, and, finally, the closure of most institutions by protesting students in the summer of 2006. The semester's exam period was lost and postponed for the fall, while the government shelved the changes and claimed that no bill would be put to a parliamentary vote before a more extensive dialogue has been held with students. However, without any further dialogue, the legislation passed in 2007.

According to a March 2006 poll, Karamanlis was preferred as prime minister by 48% of the Greek public.[12]

Structural reform

Karamanlis was elected on the promise to pursue much needed structural reform to the Greek economy and Greek state, as advised by the IMF following their review of the Economy of Greece in 2000. The New Democracy Government has since pursued a policy of structural reform in keeping with supply side economic theory. The labour market has been liberalized, especially in the large and, what some call a bloated civil service and Karamanlis has repeatedly stated that he will not give in to Labour union demands regarding pay rises. Inflation has since been brought under control and is expected to shrink below 3% in 2007. A policy of privatization has also been pursued, most notably with the state run OTE telecommunications company, which was privatized by an act of Parliament on the 15th of December 2006.

Economic growth has been steady throughout Karamanlis' time in office, frequently exceeding 4% in quarterly figures. The Greek banking sector has also grown, extending it's reach into the Balkans and Turkey. However, reforms have been plagued by repeated industrial action, particularly in the education sector, a key part of Karamanlis' reform plans.

Criticism

The prime minister came under criticism during the wild fires of 2007.[13] With hundreds of thousands of acres burning and many deaths, the government has faced growing scrutiny for its response to the fires. In the days following the fires and the seeming lack of a substantial fire-fighting response adequate to stop the blazes, the government suggested the process was not natural and the work of arsonists.

Karamanlis' first cabinet, March 10 2004–

Karamanlis with Minister for Foreign Affairs Dora Bakoyianni and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2006

Changes

See also

References

  1. ↑ Greek PM Karamanlis unveils new cabinet with several new faces September 19. 2007
  2. ↑ Olympics 'may cost Greece dear' 2 June, 2004
  3. ↑ Greek debt spirals after Olympics 12 September, 2004
  4. ↑ Greek budget mess earns EU rebuke 20 May, 2004
  5. ↑ Eurostat takes new decision on military expenditure October 3, 2006
  6. ↑ Greek economic woes spark strike 17 March, 2005
  7. ↑ Greek islands 'cut off' by strike 20 February 2006
  8. ↑ Greece paralysed by strike action 15 March 2006
  9. ↑ Greek unions hold national strike 26 July 2005
  10. ↑ Health fears amid Athens strike 13 April 2006
  11. ↑ Greek boss at phone-tapping probe 9 March 2006
  12. ↑ Support for Karamanlis Increases in Greece March 13, 2006
  13. ↑ A Political Crisis Brews in Greece as Fires Rage August 27, 2007

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Preceded by
Costas Simitis		 Prime Minister of Greece
2004 – present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
Evangelos Venizelos		 Minister for Culture
2004 – 2006		 Succeeded by
Georgios Voulgarakis
Party political offices
Preceded by
Miltiadis Evert		 President of New Democracy
1997 – present		 Incumbent
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