Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Greek: Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης, IPA: [cirˈʝakos mit͡soˈtacis]; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy party since 2016. He is generally associated with the centre-right, espousing economically liberal policies.

Mitsotakis previously was Leader of the Opposition from 2016 to 2019, and Minister of Administrative Reform from 2013 to 2015. He is the son of the late Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who was Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament for the Athens B constituency in 2004. After New Democracy suffered two election defeats in 2015, he was elected the party's leader in January 2016. Three years later, he led his party to a majority in the 2019 Greek legislative election.

Following the May 2023 Greek legislative election in which no party won a majority and no coalition government was formed by any of the parties eligible to do so, Mitsotakis called for a snap election in June. On 24 May 2023, as required by Greece's constitution, the Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou appointed Ioannis Sarmas to be the caretaker prime minister for the interim period. In the June 2023 Greek legislative election, he once again led his party to a majority and was sworn in as prime minister, having received the order to form a government from the Greek president.

During his terms as Prime Minister, Mitsotakis has received both praise and criticism for his pro-European, technocratic governance, austerity measures, and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. He has been credited with the modernization and digital transformation of the country's public administration, and has been remarked for his overall management of the Greek economy, with Greece being named the Top Economic Performer for 2022 by The Economist, which was in particular due to Greece in 2022 being able to repay ahead of schedule 2.7 billion euros ($2.87 billion) of loans owed to Eurozone countries under the first bailout it received during its decade-long debt crisis, along with being on the verge of reaching investment-grade rating. He has been commended for furthering LGBT rights in Greece through the legalization of same-sex adoption and same-sex marriage in Greece. He has also received both praise and criticism for his handling of migration, including aid from the European Union, but criticism from journalists and activists for pushbacks, which his government has denied. Additionally, Mitsotakis has received criticism for heightened corruption during his term, as well as a deterioration of freedom of the press in Greece. His term was impacted by the 2022 wiretapping scandal, the Tempi Train crash, and the wildfires in 2021 and 2023. In 2024 he received criticism by the European Parliament in a resolution addressing concerns over the state of the rule of law in Greece.