The head of a tiny center-left party whose president bolted from the Kinima Allagis political formation, which is mostly dominated by the once-formidable PASOK party, is the new tourism minister in Greece.
Thanasis Theocharopoulos, 40, an agricultural economist by training, is essentially a career politician. He takes over from Elena Kountoura, who resigned from the Cabinet – but not from Parliament – to run for the European Parliament under hard left SYRIZA’s ticket this month.
Kountoura’s political “volte-face” has seen her serve as a deputy with center-right New Democracy (ND), then with the small right-wing Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) and now with SYRIZA.
Theocharopoulos fell out with the Kinima party over disagreement on the Prespa agreement.
His only tenure in Parliament is as a state deputy elected with another PASOK-dominated formation in the September 2015 election, meaning he was placed first on a relevant list of candidates elected based on the party’s overall election performance – and not via individual votes.
The appointment drew a chorus of criticism and derision by the opposition, namely, along the lines that Theocharopoulos voted in favor of the Prespa agreement for a Cabinet post, ahead of a general election.
