Kostas Bakoyannis

Kostas Bakoyannis (Greek: Κώστας Μπακογιάννης; born 16 March 1978 in Athens) is a Greek independent politician. Having served as mayor of Central Greek town of Karpenisi, he was popularly elected Regional governor of Central Greece in the 2014 region election.

Biography

Born 1978 in Athens to Nea Dimokratia politicians Dora and Pavlos Bakoyannis, Kostas Bakoyannis lost his father Pavlos in 1989, when he was assassinated by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November. He studied history and International Relations at Brown University and graduated from Harvard with a Master of Public Administration.

Mayor of Karpenisi

In August 2010, Bakoyannis announced to run for mayoral office as an independent candidate in the small town of Karpenisi in Evrytania, where his father had originally come from. Nea Demokratia decided not to challenge Bakoyannis with an own candidate,^[1] though the party had expelled his mother Dora in May for voting in favor of the austerity measures proposed by the Papandreou government.^[2]

Bakoyannis won the local elections with 54.3%. In a To Vima interview he strongly defended the bailout deal stating that "where we have come to after all the crimes that the Greek political system made over the past 30 years, we had no choice but the Memorandum." He said that he wouldn't rule out joining the new Democratic Alliance party his mother had founded, and that "Greece needs suicidal governments ready to kill themselves to save the country."^[3]

Regional governor of Central Greece

Having promised in 2010 he would remain mayor of Karpenisi,^[3] Bakoyannis announced in early 2014 that he would run for the governorship of Central Greece, again as an independent.^[4] He was however backed by Nea Demokratia which again nominated no own candidate, and clearly won the 2014 regional election with 56.06% in the second round, defeating Syriza's candidate Evangelos Apostolou.^[5]

References