Other political offices

President of New Democracy
In office 30 November 2009 – 5 July 2015
Deputy	Stavros Dimas Dimitris Avramopoulos
Preceded by	Kostas Karamanlis
Succeeded by	Vangelis Meimarakis
Minister of Culture
In office 8 January 2009 – 6 October 2009
Prime Minister	Kostas Karamanlis
Preceded by	Michalis Liapis
Succeeded by	Pavlos Geroulanos (Culture and Tourism)
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 11 April 1990 – 13 April 1992
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Preceded by	Georgios Papoulias
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Mitsotakis
In office 23 November 1989 – 16 February 1990
Prime Minister	Xenophon Zolotas
Preceded by	Georgios Papoulias
Succeeded by	Georgios Papoulias
Minister of Finance
In office 2 July 1989 – 12 October 1989
Prime Minister	Tzannis Tzannetakis
Preceded by	Dimitris Tsovolas
Succeeded by	Georgios Agapitos
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 September 2007
Constituency	Messenia
In office 20 November 1977 – 24 August 1996
Constituency	Messenia
Member of the European Parliament
In office 20 July 2004 – 25 September 2007
Constituency	Greece

Personal details

Born

23 May 1951 (age 74)
Athens, Greece

Political party

New Democracy (1977–1992, 2004–2024)
Political Spring (1993–2004)
Independent (2024-present)

Spouse

Georgia Kretikos

(m. 1990)

Children

Relatives

Emmanouil Benakis (great-great-grandfather)
Penelope Delta (great-grandmother)

Education

Amherst College (BA)
Harvard University (MBA)

Antonis Samaras (born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician. He was the 14th Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A Prime Minister is the head of the government in many countries.

Samaras was also the leader of the New Democracy political party from 2009 to 2015. He started his career in government as the Minister of Finance in 1989. Later, he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Culture.

In 1993, Samaras left his party and started a new one. This caused the government to change. However, he rejoined New Democracy in 2004 and became its leader in 2009. He was the seventh person to lead the party since it began in 1974.

He continued to be a Member of Parliament for the Messenia region. In November 2024, he was no longer part of the New Democracy party. This happened because he disagreed with the government's foreign policy.

Early Life and Education
Political Journey
See Also
Images for kids

Early Life and Education

Antonis Samaras was born in Athens, Greece. His father, Konstantinos Samaras, was a professor of heart medicine. His mother, Lena Zannas, was the granddaughter of a famous author named Penelope Delta. His brother, Alexander, is an architect.

Antonis Samaras grew up in a well-known family in Athens. He enjoyed playing tennis and even won the Greek Teen Tennis Championship when he was 17.

He went to Athens College, a school co-founded by his great-grandfather. After that, he studied at Amherst College and graduated in 1974 with a degree in economics. He then earned a business degree from Harvard University in 1976.

Interestingly, Samaras was roommates with former Prime Minister George Papandreou when they were students. Later, they became political rivals. Samaras is married and has two children.

Political Journey

Starting in Politics

Samaras was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Messinia in 1977. In 1989, he became the Minister of Finance. He then became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government led by Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis (1990–1993).

During this time, there was a disagreement about the name of a neighboring country, which is known as the Macedonia naming dispute. Samaras had his own ideas for solving this issue. However, these ideas were not accepted by the President or the Prime Minister. Because of this, Samaras was removed from his role as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Creating a New Party

After leaving his government role, Samaras started his own political party called Political Spring. This party was a bit more conservative than New Democracy. When one Member of Parliament switched from New Democracy to Samaras's new party, it caused the government to lose power in 1993.

In the 1993 general election, Political Spring received 4.9% of the votes, which gave them ten seats in the Greek Parliament. They did even better in the 1994 European Parliament election, getting 8.7% of the votes and two seats. However, the party's support began to decrease after that.

Coming Back to New Democracy

Political Spring did not take part in the 2000 general election. Instead, Samaras publicly supported the New Democracy party. Before the 2004 general election, he closed down his party and rejoined New Democracy. He was then elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2004 European elections.

In the 2007 general election, he was elected to the Greek Parliament for Messinia. He then left his position in the European Parliament. In January 2009, he became the Minister of Culture. In this role, he opened the new Acropolis Museum in July 2009. He was reelected in Messenia in 2009.

After New Democracy lost the 2009 election, its leader, Kostas Karamanlis, resigned. This led to a new election for party leader. Samaras decided to run. Early polls showed he was very close to Dora Bakoyanni, who was thought to be the favorite. Another candidate, Dimitris Avramopoulos, decided to support Samaras instead.

The party decided that the new leader would be chosen by all party members across the country. Samaras's popularity grew, and he became the favorite to win.

Leading the Opposition

Samaras at a meeting of the European People's Party in 2010

On 30 November 2009, Antonis Samaras was elected the new President of New Democracy. His main opponent, Bakoyanni, accepted her defeat and congratulated him. Samaras gave a speech, promising to make big changes to the party to help it win more support.

He later played a key role in removing Bakoyanni from the party in 2010. This happened because she voted for a tough economic plan that the party did not support. This plan was needed for Greece to get loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

In October 2011, Prime Minister George Papandreou announced a plan to hold a public vote (referendum) on the terms of a financial rescue deal for Greece. However, after strong disagreement from many sides, Papandreou canceled the plan a few days later.

On 5 November, Papandreou's government barely won a vote of confidence in Parliament. He then called for new elections right away. The next day, Papandreou met with leaders from other parties to try and form a temporary government of national unity. Samaras agreed to this only after Papandreou stepped down. This helped the EU rescue plan move forward and prepared the way for elections in February 2012.

After many days of talks, the two main parties and another smaller party agreed to form a large coalition government. This government would be led by Lucas Papademos, who used to be a Vice President of the European Central Bank. On 10 November, George Papandreou officially resigned as Prime Minister. The new government and Prime Minister Papademos were sworn in on 11 November 2011.

Becoming Prime Minister of Greece

Samaras with Angela Merkel in Athens

Samaras with José Manuel Barroso in Athens

Samaras with François Hollande in Paris

After the May 2012 general election, the New Democracy party became the largest party in the Greek Parliament. President Karolos Papoulias asked Samaras to try and form a government. However, after a day of talks, Samaras announced he could not form a government. The task then went to Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza, the second largest party, but he also failed.

After the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) also could not form a government, new elections were called. A temporary government was put in place, led by Panagiotis Pikrammenos.

Voters went to the polls again in the June 2012 election. New Democracy did better this time, winning 129 seats. On 20 June 2012, Samaras successfully formed a government with PASOK (led by Evangelos Venizelos) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR). This new government had a majority in Parliament.

The Democratic Left left the government on 21 June 2013. This was because they disagreed with the closure of the public TV station, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). This left Samaras with a smaller majority of MPs from New Democracy and PASOK. The two remaining parties then changed the government roles, giving PASOK a bigger part.

Samaras introduced many changes and tough economic measures. These were meant to reduce the government's debt and make the Greek economy stronger. In 2013, he passed laws to lay off 15,000 public workers, including teachers and police. At the same time, he lowered the sales tax (VAT) for restaurants. He also introduced a new property tax.

Greece's economy started to improve in 2013. In April 2014, Greece was able to borrow money from other countries again, which was a sign of economic recovery. Greece's credit rating also improved. The country's economy started growing again in mid-2014 after six years of decline.

Tourism also increased significantly. In 2013, over 17.93 million tourists visited Greece, and more than 22 million visited in 2014. In healthcare, the Minister for Health, Adonis Georgiadis, provided free medicine to over 2 million citizens who did not have health insurance.

On 9 December 2014, Samaras announced that Stavros Dimas would be a candidate for President of Greece. However, Dimas did not get enough votes from Parliament. According to the Greek Constitution, this meant new elections had to be held.

These snap elections took place on 25 January 2015 and were won by the Syriza party. Alexis Tsipras became the new Prime Minister. Samaras resigned as the leader of New Democracy on 5 July 2015, after a public vote (referendum) on a bailout plan resulted in a strong "No" vote. Samaras had supported a "Yes" vote.

After Being Prime Minister

In November 2024, Samaras was removed from the New Democracy party. This happened after he criticized the foreign minister and the government's handling of certain issues in an interview. Samaras responded by saying that the Prime Minister was acting with "arrogance" and that "no one can force me to sacrifice my conscience." He also stated that "the people and history" would be the judges of everyone's actions.

Images for kids

Samaras in 2014
Samaras at a meeting of the European People's Party in 2010
Samaras with Angela Merkel in Athens
Samaras with José Manuel Barroso in Athens
Samaras with François Hollande in Paris

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