Costas Karamanlis

Biography

Konstantinos Alexandrou Karamanlis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αλεξάνδρου Καραμανλής; born 14 September 1956), commonly known as Kostas Karamanlis (Greek: Κώστας Καραμανλής), is a Greek politician who served as prime minister of Greece from 2004 to 2009. He was also the president of the centre-right New Democracy party, founded by his uncle Konstantinos Karamanlis, from 1997 to 2009, and member of the Hellenic Parliament from 1989 to 2023. Karamanlis was first elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament for New Democracy in 1989 and became president of the party in 1997. After leading the opposition in the Hellenic Parliament for seven years and his narrow defeat in the 2000 parliamentary election, he served as the 181st Prime Minister of Greece for two consecutive terms, winning the 2004 election, with an all-time record number of votes, and again in 2007. However, he asked for mid-term general elections in 2009, as his party enjoyed a narrow parliamentary majority that could not guarantee a stable government needed to handle the Greek financial crisis, though two reports published by the National Intelligence Service in 2011 suggested a conspiracy aiming to assassinate him and destabilise the Greek state. Eventually, Karamanlis was defeated and resigned as president of New Democracy after twelve years as the party's leader, being active in politics though as a member of the parliament. On 21 February 2023, it was announced that he would not be a parliamentary candidate and that he would retire from politics after the 2023 election. In foreign policy, his government vetoed North Macedonia's entry into NATO in 2008 due to the Macedonia naming dispute. Infrastructural improvements during his premiership, including the successful preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, the expansion of the Athens Metro and the beginning of construction for the Thessaloniki Metro, boosted his popularity. However, after the Greek financial crisis, which had begun at the tail end of his presidency, his government was accused of perpetuating economic mismanagement, while the lack of transparency regarding corruption cases and state finances were widely criticised. Despite remaining a significant figure for New Democracy after the party's defeat in the 2009 elections, his tenure is assessed unfavourably by academics and the general public. He is often considered one of the worst prime ministers in modern Greek history.