page_title: Antonis Samaras
section_title: Prime Minister of Greece
hierarchical_section_title: Antonis Samaras / Political career / Prime Minister of Greece
caption_attribution_description: Francois Hollande - Αντώνης Σαμαράς
context_page_description: Antonis Samaras is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Culture and Sports in 2009.
  Samaras was previously best known for a 1993 controversy in which he effectively caused the New Democracy government, of which he was a member, to fall from power. In spite of this, he rejoined the party in 2004 and was elected to its leadership in a closely fought intra-party election in late 2009. He was the seventh party leader since it was founded in 1974.
context_section_description: Following the May 2012 general election in which the New Democracy party became the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament, Samaras was asked by Greek President Karolos Papoulias to try to form a government. However, after a day of negotiations with the other parties, Samaras officially announced he was giving up the mandate to form a government. The task passed to Alexis Tsipras, Leader of Syriza, the second largest party, who was also unable to form a government. After the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) also failed to negotiate a successful agreement to form a government, emergency talks with the President of Greece ended with a new election being called while the outgoing Chairman of the Council of State Panagiotis Pikrammenos was appointed as Prime Minister of Greece in a caretaker government composed of independent technocrats.
  Voters once again took to the polls in the widely watched June 2012 election. The New Democracy party came out on top in a stronger position with 129 seats, compared to 108 in the May election. On 20 June 2012, Samaras successfully formed a coalition with the PASOK (now led by former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR). The new government had a majority of 28 (which was later reduced to 18), with Syriza, the Independent Greeks (ANEL), Golden Dawn (XA) and the Communist Party (KKE) comprising the opposition. The PASOK and DIMAR chose to take a limited role in Samaras's Cabinet, being represented by party officials and independent technocrats instead of MPs.
  The Democratic Left left the coalition on 21 June 2013 in protest at the closure of the nation's public broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), leaving Samaras with a slim majority of 153 ND and PASOK MPs combined. The two remaining parties proceeded to negotiate a cabinet reshuffle that resulted in a significantly expanded role for PASOK in the new coalition government. A further reshuffle followed the 2014 European Parliament election.
  Samaras implemented a series of reforms and austerity measures with the aim of reducing government budget deficits and making the Greek economy competitive. In 2013 he passed reform bills approving the layoff of 15,000 public employees, among them high school teachers, school guards and municipal policemen. At the same time, he cut value-added tax (VAT) in restaurants to 13 percent from 23 percent. He also passed a bill instituting the Single Property Tax and the auction of houses. The Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance Kyriakos Mitsotakis implemented an evaluation process on the public sector to locate surplus staff members.
  Greece achieved a primary government budget surplus in 2013. In April 2014, Greece returned to the global bond market as it successfully sold €3 billion worth of five-year government bonds at a yield of 4.95%. Greece's credit rating was upgraded by Fitch from B− to B. Greece returned to growth after six years of economic decline in the second quarter of 2014, and was the eurozone's fastest-growing economy in the third quarter. Tourism also grew. It is estimated that throughout 2013 Greece welcomed over 17.93 million tourists, an increase of 10% compared to 2012. More than 22 million tourists visited Greece in 2014. On healthcare, Minister for Health Adonis Georgiadis gave complete free pharmaceutical coverage to more than 2.000.000 uninsured citizens, with the cost being set at 340 million euros.
  On 9 December 2014, Samaras announced the candidacy of New Democracy politician Stavros Dimas for the position of President of Greece. Dimas failed to secure the required majority of MPs of the Hellenic Parliament in the first three rounds of voting. According to the provisions of the Constitution of Greece, snap elections were held on 25 January 2015, which were won by Syriza. Tsipras succeeded Samaras, who resigned as Leader of New Democracy on 5 July 2015, following the overwhelming victory of the "No" vote in the bailout referendum, naming Vangelis Meimarakis as transitional leader. Samaras had been backing a "Yes" vo
caption: Samaras with Francois Hollande during a visit in Paris
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