The names of Greece’s new 21 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) emerged as the voting of preferences neared completion. Although the distribution of seats among the parties and the identity of most of the new MEPs was known the day after the European Parliament election on May 25, it was far from clear who would finally represent PASOK/Elia.

SYRIZA managed to elect six MEPs, one more than New Democracy. Golden Dawn took three; PASOK/Elia, Potami and the Communist Party (KKE) two each; and Independent Greeks one.

Eight of the MEPs (from SYRIZA and the KKE) will sit with the European United Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the parliament. New Democracy’s three will join the European Peoples Party. Last week, it was announced that Potami would join the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group, which also includes Pasok.

It’s still unclear where the three Golden Dawn MEPs or the Independent Greeks’ one will sit in the new parliament.

With almost 445,000 preferences, Syriza’s Manolis Glezos topped the poll. His party colleague Sofia Sakorafa came second, on 285,000 votes.

The new MEPs are as follows, ranked in order of the number of votes they each received (based on 96.4 per cent of preferences counted).

SYRIZA

Manolis Glezos: A veteran leftist activist and leader, in May 1941 Glezos and a comrade tore down the Nazi swastika from the Acropolis weeks after the country was occupied by the Germans. Glezos, who turns 92 in September, was elected MEP in 1985, but resigned his seat after six months.

Sofia Sakorafa: A former record-holding javelin thrower, she served three terms as a PASOK MP, was expelled after voting against austerity measures, and was returned to parliament on a SYRIZA ticket in 2012.

Dimitris Papadimoulis: One of SYRIZA’s senior MPs until he stepped down to fight this election, he served as an MEP for the party from 2004 to 2009.

Konstantina Kuneva: A Bulgarian migrant worker and trade union leader, she was severely wounded in December 2008 after a man threw sulphuric acid in her face as she was returning home from work. She lost her sight in one eye and has limited vision in the other, and her vocal chords and trachea were seriously damaged in the attack, which was connected with her trade union activities and followed an escalation of tension between Kuneva and her employers.

George Katrougalos. Born in Athens in 1963, he is a constitutionalist and international lawyer, and professor of public law at the Demokritos University of Thrace.

Kostas Chrysogonos: A professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he has written over 20 books and over 80 scientific studies in law journals or collective works in Greek, English and German. A member of Syriza’s central committee, he is a regular contributor to the daily press and pursues an active law practice.

New Democracy

Maria Spyraki: Until recently a chief reporter with private Mega TV, she covered the government and New Democracy. Some weeks ago, she said she and other journalists were aware that a bank run was underway in June 2012, with emergency cash being flown into the country, but chose to withhold the information from the public, even after the danger had passed.

Manolis Kefaloyannis: A New Democracy MP since 1990, he was shipping minister from 2004-2007. More
recently he was party secretary of New Democracy. His cousin Olga Kefalogiannis is tourism minister.

Eliza Vozemberg: A lawyer, she was involved in the prosecution of members of November 17 group. Elected a New Democracy MP in 2009, she was expelled in 2012 for voting against the second memorandum. She did not contest the 2012 election and last year was given a party position by leader Antonis Samaras.

Giorgos Kyrtsos: Journalist and publisher of the City Press and Free Sunday newspapers, he was the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally’s leading candidate in the May 2012 elections. Kyrtsos in his youth was a member of the Greek Communist party. During his journalistic career he also edited Eleftheros Typos at a period when the newspaper was the circulating conservative daily in Greece.

Thodoris Zagorakis: A retired footballer, he captained the Greek national football team that won the 2004 Uefa European football championship, and is former president of Paok FC. This is his first foray into the political stadium.

Golden Dawn

Eleftherios Synadinos: Retired lieutenant-general, former commander of the army’s special forces.

Lampros Fountoulis: The father of Yiorgos Foundoulis, one of two Golden Dawn members shot dead in an attack by unidentified assailants in November 2013. He said he will fight for the “victims of terrorism”.

Georgios Epitideios: Retired lieutenant-general, former director at the European Union Military Staff

Elia/PASOK

Eva Kaili: A former television news presenter, she was first elected MP for Pasok in 2007 but make it to parliament in 2012 after party leader chose to take a seat in the Thessaloniki constituency, where she had topped the poll.

Nikos Androulakis: At 35, the youngest of the new MEPs. A civil engineer, he is now Pasok’s secretary. He joined the party’s student wing in 1997 and was elected its head ten years later. In 2008, he was elected to Pasok’s ruling political council with the second highest number of votes.

Potami (River)

George Grammatikakis: Professor emeritus of physics of the University of Crete. His scientific interests include the structure of matter and cosmology. He also worked at the National Centre for Scientific Research and later at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.

Miltos (Miltiadis) Kyrkos: The son of Leonidas Kyrkos, one of the leading postwar leaders of the Greek left, he is involved in the importing and manufacture of board games. In the past, he has been a scientifiic advisor in the European Parliament, was involved in developing the Greek-language programme for children from the Muslim minority in northern Greece and in developing educational software. He is active in the Democratic Left party (DIMAR).

Communist Party (KKE)

Kostas Papadakis: A member of KKE’s central committee and its international relations department.

Sotiris Zarianopoulos: A member of the executive secretariat of the Communist Party-aligned PAME trade union and former city councillor in Thessaloniki.

Independent Greeks

Notis Marias: Professor of European Union Institutions at the University of Crete. Elected with Independent Greeks in 2012, he resigned his seat to contest the European election.

Source: enet.gr