The Leader of the Official Opposition ( el, Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης) is the politician who leads the official Opposition in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Role

The Leader of the Opposition is normally the leader of the largest party not within the government, which is usually the second largest political party in the Hellenic Parliament. One exception to this rule was during the Papademos government, when

Antonis Samaras Antonis Samaras ( el, Αντώνης Σαμαράς, ; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as 14th Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras ...

, leader of the

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

, despite supporting the new government, retained the position of Leader of the Opposition. According to the Standing Orders of the Hellenic Parliament (Art. 20) "The President of the largest Parliamentary Group which does not participate in the Government, is called Leader of the Opposition and has special rights recognised by the Parliament's Standing Orders and current provisions". Because Samaras wanted to retain this position, no New Democracy MPs joined the Government, since if a single MP had joined the Government as a minister that would have meant that the New Democracy Parliamentary Group participated in the Government. Only non-MPs were allowed to join the Government. In fact, the new Defence Minister,

Dimitris Avramopoulos Dimitris Avramopoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Αβραμόπουλος) is a Greek politician of the conservative New Democracy party, and former career diplomat. He has served in various high-level cabinet posts, including Minister for Foreign Af ...

, was forced to resign from his seat in order to satisfy the above provision. Despite protests form the other parties, the Parliament's

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

decided that there was no violation of Art. 20, since no New Democracy MP participated in the Government. Following the January 2015 legislative election,

, leader of the

, became Leader of the Opposition for a second time. Samaras resigned as chairman of New Democracy on 5 July 2015, after the overwhelming victory of the "No" vote in the Greek bailout referendum, naming

Vangelis Meimarakis Evangelos-Vasileios "Vangelis" Meimarakis ( el, Ευάγγελος-Βασίλειος "Βαγγέλης" Μεϊμαράκης, ; born 14 December 1953), is a Greek lawyer and politician who served as the acting President of New Democracy and Leade ...

as transitional chairman.

List of leaders of the opposition since 1974

Political party:

References

{{Reflist

Lists of Greek MPs Political office-holders in Greece Greek shadow cabinets

Role

List of leaders of the opposition since 1974

See also

References