Athanasios Pafilis (

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 ...

: Αθανάσιος Παφίλης) (born 8 November 1954) is a Greek

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician, member of the Hellenic Parliament and member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Greece. He is also the General Secretary of the World Peace Council and was briefly also a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP).

Biography

Pafilis was born on 8 November 1954 in the village of Pitsio of Phtiotida. He grew up in a left-wing family and his father was a member of

ELAS The Greek People's Liberation Army ( el, Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ), ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós'' (ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberat ...

and participated in the Greek resistance during the Axis occupation of Greece, and in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

as a member of the Democratic Army. About five people of his family were killed in the civil war. When he was 12 he left his village and moved to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

where he worked in a Construction site. He was a supporter of the Greek Communist Party from his childhood. He is a law graduate from the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

Political career

He joined the

Communist Youth of Greece The Communist Youth of Greece ( el, Κομμουνιστική Νεολαία Ελλάδας ''Kommounistiki Neolea Elladas'', KNE) is the youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). It publishes the monthly newspaper ''Odigitis'' (Greek: � ...

during the Greek Dictatorship and witnessed the Polytechnic uprising. He was elected to the Greek Parliament in June 1989 with Synaspismos for Phthiotida, and re-elected in

November 1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

and April 1990. On 16 July 1991, he switched affiliation and joined the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He is a member of the Central Committee of KKE since 1991 and General Secretary of EEDYE, the Greek branch of the

World Peace Council The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization with the self-described goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass ...

. Between 2002 and 2004 he was a local councillor of the

Athens Prefecture The Athens Prefecture ( el, Νομαρχία Αθηνών, translit=Nomarkhía Athinón) was one of the prefectures of Greece. It was part of the Attica region and the Athens-Piraeus super-prefecture. The capital of the prefecture was the city ...

. He was elected Member of the European Parliament for Greece in 2004 with KKE, and sat with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He was re-elected to the European Parliament in July 2009, but resigned on 13 October 2009 after being elected to the Greek Parliament with KKE, and he has since been a member of 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 ...

References

External links

* * 1954 births Living people People from Spercheiada Aristotle University of Thessaloniki alumni Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology politicians Communist Party of Greece MEPs European United Left–Nordic Green Left MEPs MEPs for Greece 2004–2009 MEPs for Greece 2009–2014 Greek MPs 1989 (June–November) Greek MPs 1989–1990 Greek MPs 1990–1993 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 Communist Party of Greece politicians Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek MPs 2015–2019 Greek MPs 2019–2023 {{Greece-MEP-stub