Ntora Mpakogianni

Dora Bakoyannis was born in Athens in May 1954 and is the daughter of former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Marika Mitsotakis, née Giannoukou. In 1968, a few months after the dictatorship came to power, Dora Bakoyannis and her family went into exile in Paris. She returned to Greece in 1974, immediately after the fall of the Junta, and in December of the same year, she married the well-known journalist Pavlos Bakoyannis. From this marriage, she had two children, Alexia and Kostas. On September 26, 1989, her husband Pavlos Bakoyannis, a member of parliament for the New Democracy party in the single-member constituency of Evrytania, was assassinated by the terrorist organization "17 November." After nine years of widowhood, she married Isidoros Kouvelos in July 1998. She completed her education at the German School of Paris and studied Political Science and Communication at the University of Munich. Upon returning to Greece, she continued her academic studies at the Law School, graduating from the Public Law department of the University of Athens Law School. She speaks and writes German, French, and English. In 1977, she took exams at the Ministry of Coordination and was hired as an employee in the EEC Affairs Directorate. From 1984 to 1989, she was responsible for the Political Office of the leader of the main opposition and President of New Democracy, Konstantinos Mitsotakis. After her husband's assassination, in October 1989, she ran as a candidate for New Democracy in the single-member constituency of Evrytania, where Pavlos Bakoyannis had been elected in the June 1989 elections. On November 5, 1989, she was elected for the first time as a member of the Hellenic Parliament, winning the single-member constituency of Evrytania, where she was re-elected in the next two elections: April 8, 1990, and October 10, 1993. In October 1990, she was sworn in as Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister in the Mitsotakis government of New Democracy, and in December 1992, she assumed the Ministry of Culture. In the 1996 elections, she changed her electoral district and ran in the first electoral district of Athens. On September 22, 1996, she was elected as the first member of parliament for New Democracy in the A' Athens electoral district, where she was re-elected, again as the first, in the April 9, 2000 elections. From September 1991 to August 1992, she was the Secretary of International Relations for New Democracy and was responsible for representing her party in the European Democratic Union (EDU) and the International Democratic Union (IDU). On April 29, 1994, she was elected first in the order of election for the Central Committee of the party at the 3rd Congress of New Democracy, and at the 4th Congress on March 22, 1997, she was re-elected first in votes for the new Central Committee, which subsequently elected her for two terms to the Executive Committee of New Democracy. In September 1997, she was appointed by New Democracy President K. Karamanlis as head of the Development sector of New Democracy, and from May 2000, she was appointed Head of the Foreign Affairs and Defense sector of New Democracy. After the 2000 elections, she served as a member of the Standing Committee of Parliament on Defense and Foreign Affairs and the Standing Committee on European Affairs. In October 2002, following a proposal from the President of the New Democracy party, Kostas Karamanlis, she accepted the candidacy for Mayor of Athens in the municipal elections. On October 20, 2002, she was elected as the first female Mayor of Athens in the city's history, with a record-breaking 60.6% of the vote. In March 1992, she was awarded the "International Leadership Award" by the International Women's Center, and in June 1993, she was honored at the 14th International Symposium "Fontana di Roma" as a distinguished figure in the field of Culture. In January 2003, following an invitation from the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, Dora Bakoyannis joined a Round Table with 12 other prominent European figures to discuss the new social character, cultural identity, and economic plan of the expanded Europe of 25 countries. She left her position as Mayor of Athens prematurely in February 2006, a year and a half after the Olympic Games, to assume the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position she continued to hold in the New Democracy government following the 2007 elections. In the general elections of October 4, 2009, despite New Democracy's defeat, she was elected as the top-voted Member of Parliament for Athens A. In the internal party elections on November 29, 2009, she was one of three candidates for the party leadership following Kostas Karamanlis's resignation but was defeated by Antonis Samaras. On May 6, 2010, after a critical parliamentary discussion and vote on an IMF-related bill, which she supported against the party line, Antonis Samaras announced her expulsion from New Democracy's Parliamentary Group. The same day, after a meeting of the party's Disciplinary Council, she was expelled from the party. On November 21, 2010, in front of approximately 5,000 delegates at the Badminton Theater, she led an initiative of new active citizens and spearheaded the founding of the "Democratic Alliance" party, characterized by its declaration of liberal positions and principles. The party failed to secure more than 3% in the May 2012 elections, resulting in its absence from Parliament. Ahead of the June 2012 elections, the Democratic Alliance decided to collaborate with New Democracy, with Dora Bakoyannis leading the New Democracy's State List.