Leader of the Opposition (Greece)

For the Leader of the Opposition in other parliamentary systems, see Leader of the Opposition.

Leader of the Opposition Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης
Incumbent Kyriakos Mitsotakis since 11 January 2016
Term length	While leader of the largest political party not in government

The Leader of the Opposition (Greek: Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης) is the politician who leads the official Opposition in Greece.

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, leader of the New Democracy, 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, was forced to resign from his seat in order to satisfy the above provision. Despite protests form the other parties, the Parliament's Speaker decided that there was no violation of Art. 20, since no New Democracy MP participated in the Government.

Following the January 2015 legislative election, Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy, 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 as transitional chairman.

List of Leaders of the Opposition since 1974

Political Party:       EK–ND / EDIK       PASOK       ND       SYRIZA

Portrait		Name	Political Party	Term of office
		Georgios Mavros	Centre Union – New Forces in 1976 merged into Union of the Democratic Centre	1974	28 November 1977
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	28 November 1977	21 October 1981
		Georgios Rallis	New Democracy	21 October 1981	December 1981
		Evangelos Averoff	New Democracy	December 1981	1 September 1984
		Konstantinos Mitsotakis	New Democracy	1 September 1984	12 October 1989
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	12 October 1989	23 November 1989
None – National Unity Government				23 November 1989	11 April 1990
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	11 April 1990	13 October 1993
		Miltiadis Evert	New Democracy	13 October 1993	21 March 1997
		Kostas Karamanlis	New Democracy	21 March 1997	10 March 2004
		George Papandreou	PASOK	10 March 2004	6 October 2009
		Antonis Samaras	New Democracy	30 November 2009	20 June 2012
		Alexis Tsipras	SYRIZA	20 June 2012	26 January 2015
		Antonis Samaras	New Democracy	26 January 2015	5 July 2015
		Vangelis Meimarakis	New Democracy	5 July 2015	24 November 2015
		Ioannis Plakiotakis	New Democracy	24 November 2015	11 January 2016
		Kyriakos Mitsotakis	New Democracy	11 January 2016	Incumbent

See also

• Prime Minister of Greece