Panagiotis Lafazanis ( el, Παναγιώτης Λαφαζάνης, ; born 19 November 1951) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

politician. He served as the leader of a new Greek left-wing political party, Popular Unity, from 21 August 2015 until his resignation on 2 June 2019. Previously he was a member of

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

, and from 27 January to 17 July 2015 he served in the cabinet of Alexis Tsipras as the Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy.

Early life and education

Born in

Elefsina Elefsina ( el, Ελευσίνα ''Elefsina''), or Eleusis (; Ancient Greek: ''Eleusis'') is a suburban city and municipality in the West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is situated about northwest from the centre of Athens and is part of i ...

, Lafazanis attended the faculty of mathematics at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

but did not graduate.

Political career

Lafazanis was involved in the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece. Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curren ...

until the 1992 formation of

Synaspismos The Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology ( el, Συνασπισμός της Αριστεράς των Κινημάτων και της Οικολογίας, ''Synaspismós tīs Aristerás tōn Kinīmátōn kai tīs Oikologías''), com ...

, where he served as a member of the Political Secretariat. Lafazanis was first elected as a

Member of the Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the Hel ...

for Piraeus B at the

2000 Greek legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 9 April 2000.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p830 The ruling PASOK of Prime Minister Costas Simitis was narrowly re-elected, defeating the conservative ...

, representing

. He was re-elected at the 2004 legislative election, the 2009 election (this time representing

), the May 2012 election, the June 2012 election and the January 2015 election. In the parliament of 2012–2014, he was Syriza's Parliamentary Spokesman and a member of the Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency. After the 2015 legislative election, he was appointed Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy in the cabinet of Alexis Tsipras on 27 January. Lafazanis was the leader of Syriza's Left Platform and has been involved in a number of disputes with the more moderate party leader

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...

. He has called "for SYRIZA to eswept by a new wave of radicalization in all areas, ideological, political, programmatic", opposing "the Troika, memoranda, neoliberalism and finally capitalism itself", and has spoken against continued Greek membership of the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

, describing the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

as "totalitarian". On 11 July 2015, he rebelled against the SYRIZA/ANEL coalition by abstaining on a vote for austerity measures for a new bailout within the Eurozone. In a cabinet reshuffle on 17 July 2015, Lafazanis was removed from his role as the Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy. He was replaced by Panos Skourletis, the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity.

Personal life

Lafazanis is married to Fryni Dialeti and has three daughters. He also speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

fluently.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lafazanis, Panagiotis 1951 births Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology politicians Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek anti-capitalists Greek Marxists Living people National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Syriza politicians Environment ministers of Greece People from Elefsina