23 Facts About Dora Bakoyannis

Dora Bakoyannis served as Minister for Culture of Greece from 1992 to 1993.

Dora Bakoyannis rejoined New Democracy on 21 May 2012, ahead of the parliamentary election in June, where she headed the state deputies' ballot.

Dora Bakoyannis was born in Athens in 1954 to a prominent Greek family in the field of politics.

Dora Bakoyannis is the eldest of four children of the veteran Greek politician Konstantinos Mitsotakis, former Prime Minister of Greece and former leader of country's main centre-right political party New Democracy, and Marika Mitsotakis.

Dora Bakoyannis's family was exiled to Paris by the Greek military junta in 1968, thus she completed her secondary schooling at the German School of Paris.

Dora Bakoyannis then studied political science and communication at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich without graduating.

On 29 April 1994, Dora Bakoyannis was elected in the Central Committee of New Democracy by the party's Third Congress.

Dora Bakoyannis served for two terms as the chairperson of the party's Executive Committee later.

On 29 March 2002, Dora Bakoyannis was picked to run for Mayor of Athens in the 2002 local elections, both a choice of Kostas Karamanlis who was looking for a way to demonstrate New Democracy's growing strength against the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement and a chance for Dora Bakoyannis to earn prestige by this office in advance of the city hosting the Olympic games.

In 2003, upon the invitation of Romano Prodi, then President of the European Commission, Dora Bakoyannis joined a group of 12 high-level independent figures from Europe, as a member of a prestigious round-table conference, contributing proposals on the social character, cultural identity and economic future of new Europe.

Dora Bakoyannis left the office of Mayor before the end of her term, replaced by acting mayor Fotini Pipili, to become Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece on 15 February 2006 and thus the highest-ranking woman in the history of the Cabinet of Greece.

Dora Bakoyannis retained the position after the 2007 election, managing to be elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament first among all the candidates in the Athens A' constituency once more.

Dora Bakoyannis promoted the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon by the Hellenic Parliament and supported Nicolas Sarkozy's plan about the Union for the Mediterranean, but did not reach a conciliation with Turkey and the Republic of Macedonia over the Cyprus dispute and the Macedonia naming dispute respectively.

Dora Bakoyannis served as the Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from January 2009 to 6 October 2009.

Dora Bakoyannis oversaw the activities of the OSCE in conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation.

Dora Bakoyannis was expelled from New Democracy on May 7,2010, on the grounds of having defied New Democracy's line and voting "in favor" of a salient piece of legislation introducing the harsh austerity measures that were required for European Union-International Monetary Fund backed lending.

Dora Bakoyannis continued to hold her parliamentary seat, originally secured by New Democracy, as an independent.

Dora Bakoyannis is a member of the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, which she chaired from 2014 to 2016; a member of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe ; co-rapporteur for the monitoring of Russia ; and rapporteur on the Syrian Civil War.

In 2015, Dora Bakoyannis was named a member of the OSCE Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project, chaired by Wolfgang Ischinger.

Dora Bakoyannis received the honor of being elected World Mayor in 2005, an annual internet-based project organized by City Mayors in order to honor the mayors who have served their communities well.

Dora Bakoyannis had been continuously included in the Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women from 2006 to 2008.

In 2010, Dora Bakoyannis has been awarded the National Order of the Chevalry of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic.

Dora Bakoyannis later married businessman Isidoros Kouvelos in 1998, but retains her late husband's surname.