Zoe Konstantopoulou

Zoe Konstantopoulou
Ζωή Κωνσταντοπούλου
Konstantopoulou in 2015
Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
In office
6 February 2015 – 4 October 2015
PresidentKarolos Papoulias
Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Preceded byVangelis Meimarakis
Succeeded byNikos Voutsis
President of the Course of Freedom
Incumbent
Assumed office
19 April 2016
Preceded byPosition established
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office
25 June 2023
ConstituencyAthens B1
In office
6 May 2012 – 28 August 2015
ConstituencyAthens A
Personal details
Born (1976-12-08) 8 December 1976 (age 48)
Athens, Greece
Political partySyriza (2012–2015)
Popular Unity (2015–2016)
Course of Freedom (since 2016)
Parent(s)Nikos Konstantopoulos,
Lina Alexiou
Alma materNational and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Paris Nanterre University
Pantheon-Sorbonne University

Columbia University
Profession
  • Politician
  • Lawyer
Websitezoikonstantopoulou.gr

Zoe Konstantopoulou (Greek: Ζωή Κωνσταντοπούλου; born 8 December 1976) is a Greek politician of the political left, who served as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament from February to October 2015. Since 2016 she has been the president of the Course of Freedom.[1]

Life

Born on 8 December 1976, in Athens, Konstantopoulou is the daughter of former Synaspismos leader and lawyer Nikos Konstantopoulos and journalist Lina Alexiou. Both her parents were leading figures in Greece's anti-dictatorship struggle.

She is a graduate of the Athens University and Paris Nanterre University law schools. She obtained a DEA at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University on European criminal law and criminal policy in Europe and an LL.M. at Columbia Law School with a focus on international law, human rights and criminal law.

As a lawyer, Konstantopoulou was criticized by women's organisations and by the Greek branch of Helsinki Monitor for repeatedly delaying the trial of one of her clients, a rapist, by raising procedural obstacles.[2] Originally to be held in 2006, the man was not finally convicted until 2012. The River leader and MP Stavros Theodorakis regularly taunted Konstantopoulou in parliament about her role in what became known as the "rapist with the tyropita (cheese pies)" scandal.[3] In Parliament, Konstantopoulou switched off Theodorakis's microphone when he was speaking about her role in the affair.[4]

Parliamentary life

Konstantopoulou in July 2015 after the referendum

Konstantopoulou was elected to the Greek Parliament on her first attempt in May 2012 as a candidate with Syriza. She was re-elected in the June 2012 and January 2015 elections.

From 2012 to 2014, she was responsible for the justice, transparency and human rights brief for Syriza. She wrote the Black Book of Shame, which lists what Syriza considered political and financial scandals.[5]

On 6 February 2015, she was elected parliamentary speaker, with a record number of 235 out of 300 votes, from her own as well as from the Independent Greeks, The River, PASOK and New Democracy parties.[6][7]

During her tenure as "firebrand" [according to whom?] Speaker of the Greek Parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou used her office to set up three legal processes: a Greek Debt Truth committee, a committee to oversee Greek war reparations claims against Germany, and a pipeline of high-level corruption cases targeted around public sector contracts with German firms (such as the Siemens scandal and the Lagarde list scandal).[8][9][10] After the agreement for the Third Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece by the first government of SYRIZA-ANEL in a U-turn from their anti-austerity identity and pre-election campaign promises, Zoe Konstantopoulou dissociated her views from the party in opposition to this, and raised a number of procedural hurdles to delay the bailout bill when it was brought for approval in the Parliament; voting against it along with rebellious anti-austerity and far-left SYRIZA MPs, she resigned as President of the Hellenic Parliament as part of a breakaway of a nationalist, Eurosceptic, hard left Syriza faction (which contained the pro-Grexit "Left Platform" of Panagiotis Lafazanis) and participated in the following legislative elections as a "collaborative independent" candidate of the pro-drachma Popular Unity party formed from said breakaway faction.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] However, the party did not manage to achieve the electoral threshold for representation in the legislature.

Political activity since 2015

In the summer of 2015, she left Syriza. In the September 2015 Parliamentary Elections, she ran as an MP for Popular Unity[18] but the party narrowly fell short of the parliamentary threshold.

In April 2016, Konstantopoulou launched a new party, Course of Freedom.[19]

In the 2019 and May 2023 general elections, the party came in seventh and eighth place, respectively, but did not manage to enter Parliament. She was elected back to Parliament following the June 2023 elections, with her party winning 8 seats. In the 2024 EU elections the party raised its percentage from the previous EU election and slightly from the 2023 June election; electing one MEP (Maria Zacharia).

References

  1. ^ Fouskas, Vassilis K.; Dimoulas, Constantine (14 March 2018). Greece in the 21st Century: The Politics and Economics of a Crisis. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-04750-0.
  2. ^ "Parallel Report on Greece's compliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women : An Update (June 2012 – January 2013)" (PDF). OHCHR. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  3. ^ "Stavros, Zoe and …6 postponements in trial of 'cheese pie rapist'". Proto Thema. 15 July 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  4. ^ "Θεοδωράκης προς ΣΥΡΙΖΑ: Είστε κομματικοί υπάλληλοι!" (in Greek). gazzetta.gr. 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  5. ^ "Zoi Konstantopoulou, Greece's Madame Speaker And Syriza Secret Weapon - Worldcrunch". worldcrunch.com. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Το εξώδικο της Ζωής Κωνσταντοπούλου για άρθρο των "Νέων"". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). 21 December 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Zoe Konstantopoulou elected youngest ever House president". Times of Change. 6 February 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Why Greece's Syriza party is not sticking to the script on an IMF deal". Channel 4. Channel Four Television Corporation. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  9. ^ "Greek 'truth' committee probes legality of EU bailouts". EUobserver. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Explainer: could Greece's debt and bailout plan be illegal?". The Conversation. 24 June 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  11. ^ "With election near, Tsipras faces widening rift within Syriza". Reuters. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  12. ^ "Greek leftist dissenters fume over Tsipras concessions". Reuters. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Greece approves new batch of reforms for multi-billion dollar bailout". CBC. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  14. ^ "Greek parliament tested by dissent ahead of key reform vote". Times of Israel. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  15. ^ "Tsipras challenges his party critics to bailout showdown". Times of Malta. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Zoe bolts SYRIZA, will cooperate with new radical left party". Proto Thema. 31 August 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  17. ^ "Hard left splits from Tsipras and calls for drachma". The Times. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  18. ^ "Lafazanis: Drachma not a catastrophe for Greece". Proto Thema. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  19. ^ Evgenia Choros (15 April 2016). "Zoe Konstantopoulou to Present New Party 'Course of Freedom'". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
Political offices
Preceded by Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
2015 		Succeeded by
Order of precedence
Preceded byas President of Democratic Patriotic Movement – Victory Order of precedence of Greece
President of the Course of Freedom 		Succeeded byas President of Spartans