Leader of the Opposition (Greece)

Leader of the Official Opposition
Αρχηγός της Αξιωματικής Αντιπολίτευσης
Coat of Arms of Greece
Incumbent TBA since TBA
Member of	Hellenic Parliament
Appointer	Largest political party in parliament that is not in government
Term length	While leader of the largest political party not in government
Inaugural holder	Giannis Makrigiannis
Formation	16 September 1843

The Leader of the Official 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	EK–ND in 1976 merged into EDIK	21 November 1974	28 November 1977
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	28 November 1977	21 October 1981
		Georgios Rallis	New Democracy	21 October 1981	December 1981
		Evangelos Averoff		9 December 1981	1 September 1984
		Konstantinos Mitsotakis		1 September 1984	2 July 1989
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	2 July 1989	12 October 1989
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Ioannis Grivas				12 October 1989	23 November 1989
None – Ecumenical Government of Xenophon Zolotas				23 November 1989	11 April 1990
		Andreas Papandreou	PASOK	11 April 1990	13 October 1993
		Konstantinos Mitsotakis	New Democracy	13 October 1993	3 November 1993
	File:Evert-360.png	Miltiadis Evert		3 November 1993	21 March 1997
		Kostas Karamanlis		21 March 1997	10 March 2004
		George Papandreou	PASOK	10 March 2004	6 October 2009
		Kostas Karamanlis	New Democracy	6 October 2009	30 November 2009
		Antonis Samaras		30 November 2009	16 May 2012
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Panagiotis Pikrammenos				16 May 2012	20 June 2012
		Alexis Tsipras	SYRIZA	20 June 2012	26 January 2015
		Antonis Samaras	New Democracy	26 January 2015	5 July 2015
		Vangelis Meimarakis Acting		5 July 2015	27 August 2015
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou				27 August 2015	21 September 2015
		Vangelis Meimarakis Acting	New Democracy	21 September 2015	24 November 2015
		Ioannis Plakiotakis Acting		24 November 2015	11 January 2016
		Kyriakos Mitsotakis		11 January 2016	8 July 2019
		Alexis Tsipras	SYRIZA	8 July 2019	25 May 2023
None – Caretaker Cabinet of Ioannis Sarmas				25 May 2023	26 June 2023
		Alexis Tsipras	SYRIZA	26 June 2023	29 June 2023
		TBA	SYRIZA	3 July 2023

See also

• Prime Minister of Greece