Afroditi Latinopoulou was born on 29 April 1991 in Thessaloniki. Her maternal roots are in Evros, a region where she received the highest percentage of votes in the European elections.[2] She was the first child in a family of secondary school teachers.[3] From a young age, she was involved in tennis, a sport in which she won 15 Greek championships and 4 European championships.[3] In 2010, she was ranked 1067th by the Women's Tennis Association. Her sporting career ended in 2013 due to an injury.[4]
She studied at the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, graduating in 2017.[5] In 2016, she joined ONNED and was appointed Secretary of the District. Before her election to the European Parliament, Latinopoulou worked as a lawyer.[6]
Politics
In the legislative elections of 2019, she stood as a candidate for MP in Thessaloniki with the New Democracy.[7] She received 5,297 votes, finishing in 18th place out of a total of 20 candidates.[8]
Afroditi Latinopoulou has been very active on social media, where her posts on political and social issues often conflicted with the official policy of New Democracy. In the summer of 2022, after she made comments on the appearance of the Greek TV presenter,[9] Danae Barka, New Democracy issued a statement and proceeded to ban Latinopoulou from running with the party: "Afroditi Latinoopoulou holds no office or position in the organisational chart of New Democracy, either at the local or central level, and will not be a candidate in the next national elections."[9]
In August 2022, Afroditi Latinopoulou announced that she would join the "Patriotic Force for Change" a party of Konstantinos Bogdanos[10] as Vice President. In March 2023 when Bogdanos, decided to cooperate for a joint election with the Patriots – Prodromos Emfietzoglou, Latinoupoulou disagreed and was removed from the coalition.[11] On 23 March 2023 she founded her own party, "PATRIDA - Afroditi Latinoopoulou". However, by decision of the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece, to which Konstantinos Bogdanos appealed, her new party was excluded from participation in the elections of 21 May 2023 as it was considered that both the name and the symbol of the party were stolen from "Patriotic Force for Change".[12]
On 25 May 2024, she announced the renaming of the party as the Voice of Reason.[13]
Although she does not label herself as far-right, she actively supports and collaborates with European politicians often associated with the extreme right, such as Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni.[33] On 29 June 2024, she urged the French people to vote for Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella to combat "Islamisation", halt immigration, and prevent the "suicide of Europe".[34] She has expressed admiration for Viktor Orbán, stating that he "has zero illegal migrants and listens to and respects his people."[35]
She has repeatedly sparked reactions with her views on women's nature, and human rights, which several Greek journalistic organisations have condemned as hate speech.[36] Some highlighted how she conceals her far-right character through constant fearmongering and dog whistling.[37][38][39] A notable incident occurred in 2022 when she was banned from running with New Democracy after making comments[40] about Greek TV presenter Danae Barka.[41][42][43] In 2021, in a similarly controversial incident, she compared homosexuality to paedophilia.[44][45] In 2022, she shared another video on Instagram condemning drag queen story hour after a kindergarten in Thessaloniki organised one.[46] In November 2024, she delivered a speech in the European Parliament that has been criticised as transphobic.[47] She condemned gender-affirming care, referring to educational content on gender diversity as "lies about 54 genders."[48] Latinopoulou asserted that there are only two genders—male and female—and argued against exposing children to LGBTQ+ topics, stating, "Hands off the children." She also defended Hungary amidst legal scrutiny over its anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
In 2021, she was involved in supporting a controversial[49] fertility conference that was cancelled.[50] She has voiced her disagreement with the use of the term "femicide" and criticised left-wing parties for "exploiting victims", including the "glorification", as she referred to, of the two murdered activists Pavlos Fyssas and Zak Kostopoulos.[51]
In June 2024, she was listed among the 23 "kookiest [new] MEPs" in the European Parliament by Politico.[21]
^"Δύο γυναίκες με καταγωγή από τον Έβρο εκλέχθηκαν στην Ευρωβουλή" ["Two women from Evros elected to the European Parliament"]. Evros24. 10 June 2024. ...The party of Aphrodite Latinoopoulou gathered 6.36% in Evros, the highest percentage received by the "Voice of Reason" among all the electoral regions of the country..
^"Η Αφροδίτη Λατινοπούλου 10 χρόνια πριν σε αγώνα τένις (vid)" ["Aphrodite Latinoopoulou 10 years ago in a tennis match (vid)"]. Intro News. 21 June 2023. In total he won 15 Championships in our country and 4 European Championships. However, due to a serious injury in 2013 he was forced to stop.
