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Sofia Sakorafa
Sofia Sakorafa
Σοφία Σακοράφα
	Sakorafa, 2016
Deputy Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
	In office; 18 July 2019 – 21 May 2023 Serving with Nikitas Kaklamanis, Haralambos Athanasiou, Athanasios Bouras, Dimitris Vitsas, Odysseas Konstantinopoulos, Giorgos Lambroulis, and Apostolos Avdelas
Speaker	Konstantinos Tasoulas
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
	In office; 8 July 2019 – 21 May 2023
Constituency	Athens B3
	In office; 17 June 2012 – 5 May 2014
Succeeded by	Fotini Kouvela
Constituency	Athens B
Member of the European Parliament
	In office; 1 July 2014 – 2 July 2019
Constituency	Greece
Personal details
Born	29 April 1957 (age 67); Trikala, Thessaly, Kingdom of Greece
Citizenship	Greek; Palestinian;
Political party	PASOK (2000–2010); Syriza (2012–2015); Independent (2015–2018); MeRA25 (2018–2023);
Alma mater	Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Occupation	Politician
	Sports career
Country	Greece
Sport	Women's Javelin
Medal record
Women's Javelin
Representing Greece
European Championships
Mediterranean Games

Sofia Sakorafa (Greek: Σοφία Σακοράφα, born 29 April 1957 in Trikala, Greece) is a Greek-Palestinian politician and former javelin thrower. She was a Member of the European Parliament for Greece as member of the political party MeRA25, having formerly sat for Syriza and before that served, from June 2012 to July 2014, as a Syriza Member of the Hellenic Parliament. She served as a deputy speaker in the Hellenic Parliament for the MeRA25 party.^[1] She is the president of Association hellénique d'athlétisme amateur (SEGAS).

Education

Sakorafa graduated in physical education from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.^[2]

Athletics

She started competing in athletics as a member of Trikala Gymnastic Club. She competed in the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

She won the bronze medal at the 1982 European Championships in Athens.^{[citation needed]} In 1983, after winning the Balkan Games, she had achieved the third performance of the year with a throw of 72.28 m, but eventually had to withdraw from the World Championships in Helsinki, due to injury.^{[citation needed]}

She was named the Greek Female Athlete of the Year for 1981 and co-Athlete of the Year with javelin thrower Anna Verouli for 1982.

Competition record

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing Greece
1976	Olympic Games	Montreal, Canada	-	NM
1978	European Championships	Prague, Czechoslovakia	13th (q)	56.76 m
1979	Mediterranean Games	Split, Yugoslavia	1st	57.96 m GR
1980	Olympic Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	-	NM
1982	Balkan Games	Bucharest, Romania	1st	62.08 m
1982	European Championships	Athens, Greece	3rd	67.04 m
1983	Balkan Games	İzmir, Turkey	1st	71.28 m CR
1983	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	-	DNS
1986	Balkan Games	Ljubljana, Yugoslavia	1st	61.00 m
1987	Mediterranean Games	Latakia, Syria	3rd	57.16 m
Representing Palestine
2004	Venizelia	Chania, Greece	4th	47.23 m MW45WR
(q) Indicates overall position in qualifying round

2004 Olympics

Sakorafa stirred controversy in 2004 when she became a Palestinian citizen and applied a few months before the Olympic Games for a berth on the Palestinian Olympic team at the age of 47. She made her debut representing Palestine in Chania, Crete, on 28 June 2004 - her performance was 47.23 metres. Despite the fact that her gesture to participate as a Palestinian was symbolic, the IAAF ruled her ineligible for the 2004 Summer Olympics.^[3]

Professional career

Sakorafa worked in as a secondary teacher of physical education before working as a freelance. From 1994 to 1996, she served as an adviser to the sports minister and as Chairman of the Commission for Sport and Woman.^[2]

Political career

She has served on the City Councils of Athens, from 1994 to 1998, and Maroussi, from 1998 to 2006. She was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament under the banner of PASOK three times (in the elections of 2000, 2007 and 2009).^[2] She failed to win a seat in parliament following the 2004 elections.

On 6 May 2010 she refused to vote in favour of the austerity measures and the loan agreement between the Greek government and the IMF/EU. As a result, she was expelled from PASOK. She served as an independent member of the parliament until 2012.^[2]

She participated in the 2012 legislative elections as a member of Syriza and was elected in Athens B. In the Shadow Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras, she had responsibility for the interior.^[2] She resigned from the Hellenic Parliament in May 2014 in order to contest the European Parliament election.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2014 European Parliament elections, she was elected as a Member of European Parliament for Greece, representing Syriza. She is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Petitions and is a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Since 16 October 2014, she has been the chair of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America, having previously been a member. She is therefore also a member of the Conference of Delegation Chairs.^[4]

On 28 September 2015, Sakorafa left Syriza to sit as an Independent within the GUE/NGL grouping.^[4] She resigned from Syriza over disagreements with the leadership over the introduction of further austerity measures in Greece. She said: "It's clear that I cannot support any government nor any policies that involve measures that harm the people."^[5]

In December 2018 Sofia Sakorafa joined the Greek party MeRA25.^[6] On 26 May 2019, she lost reelection as a member of the European Parliament as member of MeRA25.^[7]