Maria Kollia Tsaroucha ( el, Μαρία Κόλλια-Τσαρουχά) is a Greek politician from

Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...

, the Deputy Minister of the Interior for Macedonia and Thrace until August 2018 in the Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras and a former member of parliament with

Independent Greeks The Independent Greeks - National Patriotic Alliance ( el, Ανεξάρτητοι Έλληνες (ΑΝΕΛ), ''Anexartitoi Ellines'', ANEL) is a national-conservative political party in Greece. The party was the junior coalition partner to the ...

until 7 July 2019. She was also

Deputy Speaker The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

of the Hellenic Parliament.

Early life and education

Mrs. Kollia-Tsaroucha was born in Serres on 21 February 1958. She is a graduate of the law school of Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.
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Political career

From 1983 to 2012, Kollia-Tsaroucha was a member of the Women's section of

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

. She ended up as member of the Central Committee of New Democracy and the party's section responsible for Education and Religion. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, she was elected to the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

for the

Serres prefecture Serres ( el, Περιφερειακή ενότητα Σερρών) is one of the regional units of Greece, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is part of the Region of Central Macedonia. Its capital is the city of Serres. The total populatio ...

. In 2004, 2007, and 2009, she was reelected. During this time, she was President of the Special Standing Committee on Equality, Youth and Human Rights and of the Standing Committee on Educational Affairs. She was a member of the Standing Committees of Foreign Affairs and Defence, and also of Public Administration and Justice. In February 2012, after a vote against the second memorandum, she was expelled from her party's parliamentary caucus. The following month she joined the new party

and took up the function of Parliamentary Representative of Parliamentary Group of the party along with

Christos Zois Christos Zois ( el, Χρήστος Ζώης; born 10 May 1968) is a Greek politician. He is currently the leader of NEA MERA, and Deputy Chairman of the Union for the Homeland and the People. He was formerly a Member of the Hellenic Parliament ...

. In the May 2012 elections, she was reelected on the ballot of Independent Greeks in the Serres constituency. On 18 May 2012, she was elected sixth deputy speaker of the parliament, with 185 votes in favour and 96 abstaining. In the June 2012 elections, the Independent Greeks placed her first on the list of their candidates (in accordance with the preferences expressed in the May election). The party preserved her seat in Serres RO, renewing only her place in rank. She was elected sixth deputy speaker with 225 votes in favour. In the election of 25 January 2015, she was re-elected parliamentarian from Serres for the Independent Greeks. With the formation of the government of Alexis Tsipras, she was appointed

Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace ( el, Υφυπουργός Μακεδονίας και Θράκης) is the government minister in charge of Greece's Sub-Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, part of the Ministry of the Interior (Greece), ...

. She has been consistently opposed to the use of Macedonia in the name of the

Former Yugoslav Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

. Kollia-Tsaroucha is a member of the

Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy ( el, Διακοινοβουλευτική Συνέλευση Ορθοδοξίας, russian: Межпарламентская Ассамблея Православия), or I.A.O., is a transnational, ...

's International Secretariat, holding the position of treasurer.

Personal life

She is married to Christos Tsarouchas (an architectural engineer). She has one son, Konstantinos (a political scientist) and a daughter Katerina (a sociologist and journalist).

Electoral results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kollia-Tsaroucha, Maria 1958 births New Democracy (Greece) politicians Independent Greeks politicians People from Serres Living people Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni Greek MPs 2015–2019