George Andreas Papandreou is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011.
41 Facts About George Papandreou
2.
George Papandreou is currently serving as an MP for Movement for Change.
3.
George Papandreou served as Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Costas Simitis from 1999 to 2004.
4.
George Papandreou was leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, which his father founded, from February 2004 until March 2012, and has been President of the Socialist International since 30 January 2006 to 25 November 2022.
5.
On 6 October 2009, George Papandreou became the 182nd Prime Minister of Greece.
6.
George Papandreou was the third member of the Papandreou family to serve as the country's prime minister, following his father Andreas and his grandfather Georgios Papandreou.
7.
George Papandreou resigned on 11 November 2011 during the Greek government debt crisis to make way for a national unity government.
8.
Democratic Alignment later evolved into Movement for Change, which in the 2019 elections was the third most voted-for party, with George Papandreou himself returning to Parliament as an MP representing the region of Achaea.
9.
George Papandreou was born 16 June 1952 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, where his father, Andreas George Papandreou, at that time held a professorship at the University of Minnesota.
10.
George Papandreou's mother is the American-born Margaret Papandreou, nee Chant.
11.
George Papandreou received his secondary education at schools in Illinois in the United States, in Sweden, and graduated from King City Secondary School in Canada in 1970.
12.
George Papandreou attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, Stockholm University, the London School of Economics and Harvard University.
13.
George Papandreou has a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Amherst and a master's degree in sociology from the LSE.
14.
George Papandreou's father studied and worked as professor of economics from 1939 to 1959.
15.
George Papandreou's paternal grandfather, Georgios Papandreou, was a three-time prime minister of Greece.
16.
The younger George Papandreou came to Greece after the restoration of Greek democracy in 1974.
17.
George Papandreou then became active in the political party his father had founded, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement.
18.
George Papandreou joined the Central Committee of PASOK in 1984.
19.
George Papandreou was elected to the Greek Parliament in 1981, the year his father became Prime Minister, as MP for the constituency of Achaea.
20.
George Papandreou became Under Secretary for Cultural Affairs in 1985, Minister of Education and Religious Affairs in 1988, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1993, Minister for Education and Religious Affairs again in 1994, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs again in 1996 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 1999.
21.
George Papandreou was Minister Responsible for Government Coordination for the Bid for 2004 Olympic Games in 1997.
22.
George Papandreou was instrumental in initiating the Open University in Greece.
23.
George Papandreou received numerous awards and honorary degrees in recognition of his work for human rights.
24.
George Papandreou worked to resolve tensions regarding the Macedonia naming dispute.
25.
George Papandreou stated in 1999 that he supported Turkey's application to join the European Union.
26.
George Papandreou is a founding member of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly.
27.
In January 2004, the incumbent PM Costas Simitis announced his resignation as leader of PASOK, and passed the leadership to George Papandreou by recommending him as the new leader.
28.
In May 2005, George Papandreou was elected Vice President of the Socialist International following a proposal by the former president, Antonio Guterres.
29.
In January 2006, George Papandreou was unanimously elected President of the Socialist International.
30.
George Papandreou responded by promoting austerity measures, reducing spending, increasing taxes, freezing additional taxes and hiring and introducing measures aimed at combatting rampant tax evasion and reducing the country's public sector.
31.
On 23 April 2010 during a visit at the island of Kastelorizo, George Papandreou issued a statement to the press that he instructed Finance Minister Papakonstantinou to officially ask the EU partners to activate the support mechanism, 'an unprecedented mechanism in the history and practice of the European Union'.
32.
An opinion poll by Public Issue on behalf of Skai TV and Kathimerini in October 2011 showed that George Papandreou's popularity had dropped considerably.
33.
The next day George Papandreou met with opposition leaders trying to reach an agreement on the formation of an interim national unity government.
34.
However, Samaras gave in only after George Papandreou agreed to step aside, allowing the EU bailout to proceed and paving the way for elections on 19 February 2012.
35.
On 2 January 2015, George Papandreou announced his aspirations to return to high-profile domestic politics.
36.
In March 2017, at the Congress of the Socialist International that took place in Cartagena, Colombia, George Papandreou was unanimously re-elected President of the organization.
37.
George Papandreou is co-chair of the Democratic Alignment, a coalition of the center left parties in Greece, composed by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, the Democratic Left and the Movement of Democratic Socialists.
38.
In May 2017, George Papandreou delivered the keynote speech to the European Association of Political Consultants in Brussels.
39.
On 20 October 2021, George Papandreou announced his candidacy for the leadership of Movement for Change.
40.
George Papandreou has two younger brothers, Nikos Papandreou and Andreas Papandreou, and two younger sisters, Sophia Papandreou and Emilia Nyblom.
41.
In 2016, George Papandreou co-signed a letter to Ban Ki-Moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with people like Glenn Greenwald, Olusegun Obasanjo and Anthony Romero.