Leader of the Official Opposition of Greece
Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης
Coat of Arms of Greece
Incumbent
Socrates Famellos
since 3 July 2023
Member of
AppointerLargest political party in parliament that is not in government
Term lengthWhile leader of the largest political party in parliament that is not in government

The Leader of the Official Opposition (Greek: Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης) is the politician who leads the biggest opposition party in Greece.

Role

According to the Hellenic Parliament's Rules of Procedure, the Leader of the Opposition is normally the leader of the largest party not within the government,[1] which is usually the second largest political party in the Hellenic Parliament.

One exception to this rule was during the Papademos government, when Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy, despite supporting the new government, retained the position of Leader of the Opposition. According to the Standing Orders of the Hellenic Parliament (Art. 20) "The President of the largest Parliamentary Group which does not participate in the Government, is called Leader of the Opposition and has special rights recognised by the Parliament's Standing Orders and current provisions". Because Samaras wanted to retain this position, no New Democracy MPs joined the Government, since if a single MP had joined the Government as a minister that would have meant that the New Democracy Parliamentary Group participated in the Government. Only non-MPs were allowed to join the Government. In fact, the new Defence Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, was forced to resign from his seat in order to satisfy the above provision. Despite protests form the other parties, the Parliament's Speaker decided that there was no violation of Art. 20, since no New Democracy MP participated in the Government.

Following the January 2015 legislative election, Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy, became Leader of the Opposition for a second time.

Samaras resigned as chairman of New Democracy on 5 July 2015, after the overwhelming victory of the "No" vote in the Greek bailout referendum, naming Vangelis Meimarakis as transitional chairman.[2]

Following the resignation of Alexis Tsipras in June 2023, Socrates Famellos served-initially-as the Leader of the Opposition pro tempore; however, since the 2023 Syriza leadership election resulted in the election of a non-parliamentarian (Stefanos Kasselakis) as party President, Famellos remained as the Leader of the Opposition.

List of leaders of the opposition since 1974

Political party:   EK–ND / EDIK   PASOK   ND   Syriza

Portrait Name Political party Term of office
Georgios Mavros EK–ND
in 1976 merged into
EDIK		 21 November 1974 28 November 1977
Andreas Papandreou PASOK 28 November 1977 21 October 1981
Georgios Rallis New Democracy 21 October 1981 December 1981
Evangelos Averoff 9 December 1981 1 September 1984
Konstantinos Mitsotakis 1 September 1984 2 July 1989
Andreas Papandreou PASOK 2 July 1989 12 October 1989
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Ioannis Grivas 12 October 1989 23 November 1989
None – Ecumenical Government of Xenophon Zolotas 23 November 1989 11 April 1990
Andreas Papandreou PASOK 11 April 1990 13 October 1993
Konstantinos Mitsotakis New Democracy 13 October 1993 3 November 1993
Miltiadis Evert 3 November 1993 21 March 1997
Kostas Karamanlis 21 March 1997 10 March 2004
George Papandreou PASOK 10 March 2004 6 October 2009
Kostas Karamanlis New Democracy 6 October 2009 30 November 2009
Antonis Samaras 30 November 2009 16 May 2012
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Panagiotis Pikrammenos 16 May 2012 20 June 2012
Alexis Tsipras Syriza 20 June 2012 26 January 2015
Antonis Samaras New Democracy 26 January 2015 5 July 2015
Vangelis Meimarakis
Acting		 5 July 2015 27 August 2015
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou 27 August 2015 21 September 2015
Vangelis Meimarakis
Acting		 New Democracy 21 September 2015 24 November 2015
Ioannis Plakiotakis
Acting		 24 November 2015 11 January 2016
Kyriakos Mitsotakis 11 January 2016 8 July 2019
Alexis Tsipras Syriza 8 July 2019 25 May 2023
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Ioannis Sarmas 25 May 2023 26 June 2023
Alexis Tsipras Syriza 26 June 2023 29 June 2023
Sokrates Famellos 3 July 2023 Incumbent

See also

References

  1. ↑ Κανονισμός της Βουλής των Ελλήνων (in Greek). Hellenic Parliament. 24 June 1987. p. 30. Aρχηγός Aξιωματικής Aντιπoλίτευσης – Άρθρo 20 – O Πρόεδρoς της μεγαλύτερης σε δύναμη Koινoβoυλευτικής Oμάδας πoυ δεν μετέχει στην Kυβέρνηση απoκαλείται Aρχηγός της Aξιωματικής Aντιπoλίτευσης και έχει τα ιδιαίτερα δικαιώματα πoυ τoυ αναγνωρίζει o Kανoνισμός της Boυλής και oι κείμενες διατάξεις.
  2. ↑ "Παραιτήθηκε ο Αντώνης Σαμαράς από την ηγεσία της Νέας Δημοκρατίας" (in Greek). in.gr. 5 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
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