Dimitris Avramopoulos

Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greek Δημήτρης Αβραμόπουλος, born June 6, 1953 in Athens ) is a Greek politician and diplomat.

Biography

Avramopoulos studied Public Law and Political Science at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and completed his postgraduate studies with specialization in international organization at Boston University and in European Studies at the Institute of European Affairs of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels.

Diplomatic career

From 1980 to 1993 Avramopoulos worked as a career diplomat, first in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens from 1988 to 1992 as the Greek Consul in Liège and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister and chairman of the party New Democracy, Konstantinos Mitsotakis. He also represented Greece at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna in the same year. In 1992, he was the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry in Athens, Consul General of Greece in Geneva. In 1993, he became the Director of the Diplomatic Office of the Greek Prime Minister.

Political career

In 1993 he went from the Greek diplomatic service as a member of the conservative New Democracy party into politics and became a member of the Central Committee of the Party. He was elected as a Member of the Greek Parliament in 1993. In 1994 he was elected mayor of Athens, re-elected in October 1998.

After the victory of the New Democracy party in the parliamentary elections of 2004 Dimitris Avramopoulos took over the government of Kostas Karamanlis to 2006, the Office of the Minister of Tourism from 2006 to 2009 he was Minister for Health and Social Solidarity.

As Karamanlis relinquished after the heavy defeat of New Democracy in the 2009 parliamentary elections as party leader, is Avramopoulos initially applied for the party presidency. However, he withdrew his candidacy in favor of Andonis Samaras. His support for Samaras was considered essential for its victory in the election by the party base and immediately rewarded by Samaras that he called Avramopoulos as " Shadow Foreign Secretary ".

He was appointed as a representative of New Democracy as defense minister in the caretaker cabinet of Prime Minister Loukas Papademos. Since the party to appear as their low participation in the government and wanted to send this reason no MPs in the Cabinet, Avramopoulos had to give up his seat.

On June 21, 2012 Avramopoulos was appointed as Foreign Minister in the government of Andonis Samaras. In June 2013, he joined the Ministry of Defence.