George Papandreou
Giorgos Andrea Papandreou (Greek Γιώργος Ανδρέα Παπανδρέου, actually Georgios Γεώργιος; born June 16, 1952 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is a Greek politician. He was from 1999 to 2004 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece. From February 2004 to March 2012 he was chairman of the party Panellinio Sosialistiko Kinima (PASOK ). In October 2009 he released after an election victory the previous incumbent Kostas Karamanlis as Prime Minister of Greece from and took until September 2010 the State Department. On 9 November 2011, he resigned from his position as Prime Minister back. Papandreou since January 2006 Chairman of the Socialist International.
Life
Papandreou is grandson of Georgios Papandreou and son of Andreas Papandreou, both former prime ministers. He attended from 1972 to 1973, the University of Stockholm from 1975 to 1979, the Amherst College in the U.S. and received a bachelor 's degree in sociology. Further studies with a degree in sociology and development are carried out at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Political career
1984 Papandreou was elected to the Central Committee of the Socialist PASOK party, whose member he is to this day. From 1981 to 1993, Papandreou was Member of Parliament for PASOK in the constituency of Achaea. He has assumed various functions in the Greek parliament, among other things, the chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, on the Committee on Culture and Education, as well as the deputy chairman of the multi-party Committee on Public Radio in Greece. He was from 1987 to 1988 Member of the Executive Committee of PASOK since 1990 and Secretary of the Greek diaspora. Papandreou was a member of various political committee of PASOK, as Secretary of the Committee for Agricultural cooperatives, deputy secretary of the organizing committee of PASOK, a member of the Committee on International Relations and Secretary of the Committee on Publications and seminars.
He was from 1985 to 1987 Secretary of State for Cultural Affairs, here, among others, responsible for adult education and youth affairs, from June 1988 to July 1989 he was appointed Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, and was the same government coordinator for the application Athens for the Olympic Summer Games 1996. From 1992 to 1993 he was a Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, USA.
In October 1996 he was appointed Konstantinos Simitis Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece and in February 1999 the Secretary of State. This office he led to the dismissal of the government in March 2004. Since 8 February 2004 George Papandreou was chairman of PASOK. As Spitzenkanditat in the parliamentary election on March 7, 2004, he failed to follow up on the term of office of his predecessor as party leader Costas Simitis as prime minister. Victor and new head of government was Konstantinos Karamanlis of the liberal-conservative New Democracy party.
On 30 January 2006, Papandreou was elected president of the Socialist International.
In the Greek legislative elections of 16 September 2007, he entered again as a candidate for the office of Prime Minister for the PASOK against the ruling Konstantinos Karamanlis, but lost in this election. After the defeat in the 2007 General Election Papandreou turned 11 November 2007 a vote on the party chairmanship among the members and supporters of PASOK. For this choice 974 666 people were eligible to vote. Of these, 769 156 or 78.9 % participated. He was confirmed in the first round against two competitors, Evangelos Venizelos and Kostas Skandalidis, with a voting share of 55.91 % as Chairman.
Tenure as Prime Minister
In the parliamentary elections on October 4, 2009, PASOK won with a vote share of 43.9 percent, the absolute majority of parliamentary seats. Two days later Papandreou was sworn in as the new Prime Minister. He took in his government, until September 7, 2010 the State Department.
The beginning of his term in office was overshadowed by the outcropping Greek sovereign debt crisis from 2010. In a televised address early February 2010, Papandreou announced further austerity measures to avoid a sovereign default in. Since then, the Papandreou government has increased taxes in several steps and decided drastic austerity measures. On behalf of the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Greece got it made a more than 110 billion loan package views. Multiple payments from this aid package have already been transferred to the Greek state budget. In mid-June 2011 made Papandreou under the pressure of massive protests his government to. He replaced his Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou by the former Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos, after Loukas Papademos - could not win for this office - an economist and from 2002 to 2010 Vice- President of the European Central Bank ( ECB).
On June 19, 2011 Papandreou presented in the Parliament's confidence and announced for the fall of a referendum on where the Greek citizens to decide on reforms to "Modernization of the State". The vote on the question of confidence in the night of June 22 won Papandreou's government and the majority of MPs signaled their approval to new austerity requirements of the EU and the IMF. For the Government voted all 155 MPs of his party, the ruling PASOK. 143 MPs voted against, while two independent MPs were absent.
An early November of Papandreou surprisingly unannounced referendum on the austerity measures, which went back to the decisions of the previous Euro summit in Brussels to help Greece ( cf. EFSF), Papandreou called off after massive domestic and foreign political criticism and turned then successfully a further vote of confidence. On November 6, 2011 it was announced that, in the wake of the euro crisis is to be a restructuring of the Greek cabinet, as a result of Papandreou will leave office. On November 9, 2011, he officially declared his resignation. As prime minister, he was followed by 11 November 2011 Loukas Papademos after.
On 18 March 2012, he was replaced by Evangelos Venizelos as chairman of PASOK.
Honor
The Day of German Unity 2010 Papandreou was awarded the Quadriga Prize for his " power of truth ". The laudation was Josef Ackermann.