Konstantinos Mitsotakis
| Konstantinos Mitsotakis link (Politician) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 18 October 1918 Halepa, Greece |
| Died | 29 May 2017 Athens, Greece |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Alma mater | University of Athens |
| Children | Alexandra Mitsotaki |
| Spouse | Marika Mitsotakis |
| Party | Liberal Party (Greece), Centre Union (Greece), Independent, New Liberal (Greece), New Democracy (Greece) |
Attended the 1993 Bilderberg as Prime Minister of Greece | |
Konstantinos Mitsotakis was a Greek politician who was Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. His son, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was elected as the Prime Minister of Greece following the 2019 Greek legislative election.
Background
Mitsotakis was born on Crete into a powerful political family, linked on both sides to Eleftherios Venizelos.
Career
Mitsotakis was elected to the Greek Parliament for the first time in 1946, standing for the Liberal Party. He followed most of the old Liberal Party into Georgios Papandreou's Center Union in 1961. But King Constantine II openly opposed Papandreou's progressive government, and in 1965 he engineered a split in the Centre Union. Mitsotakis led a Centre Union faction, known as the "July apostates", who crossed the floor to bring about the fall of Papandreou's s government, which earned him the long-time hatred of Papandreou loyalists as well as a significant part of the Greek left.
Arrest and exile
Mitsotakis was arrested in 1967 by the military junta but managed to escape to Turkey with a help of Turkish foreign minister İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil and lived in exile with his family in Paris, France, until his return to Greece in 1974.
1990 - PM
When he became PM in 1990 for the New Democracy (ND) party, his government moved swiftly to cut government spending as much as possible, privatize state enterprises and reform the civil service. In foreign policy, Mitsotakis took the initiative to have Greece formally recognize the state of Israel, and moved to reopen talks on American bases in Greece and to restore confidence among Greece's economic and political partners (big banks and the United States/NATO).
In June 1990, Mitsotakis became the first Greek Premier to visit the US since 1974. He promised to meet Greece's NATO obligations, to prevent use of Greece as a base for "terrorism" (change the policy away from Palestinians and the Arab countries), and to stop the rhetorical attacks on the United States that had been Papandreou's hallmark. Mitsotakis also supported a new dialogue with Turkey, but made progress on the Cyprus dispute a prerequisite for improvement on other issues.
Resignation
Mitsotakis resigned after a 1993 premature election.