Karolos Papoulias - Role in PASOK, Parliamentary and Government Offices

Role in PASOK, Parliamentary and Government Offices

Papoulias was a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and a close associate of its leader Andreas Papandreou. Since December 1974 he was continually elected to the PASOK Central Committee. He was also member of the Coordination Council, the Executive Bureau and the Political Secretariat, as well as Secretary of the PASOK International Relations Committee from April 1975 to 1985. For a number of years he was also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Socialist and Progressive Parties of the Mediterranean.

He was first elected to the Greek Parliament in 1977 for Ioannina, and held his seat continuously through the subsequent legislative elections until his 2004 election as President of the Republic. He held several high offices during the PASOK cabinets:

• Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 21 October 1981 to 8 February 1984.
• Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 8 February 1984 to 5 June 1985 and again from 5 June 1985 to 26 July 1985.
• Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 26 July 1985 to 2 July 1989.
• Alternate Minister for National Defence, from 23 November 1989 to 13 February 1990 in the ecumenical government of Xenophon Zolotas .
• Minister for Foreign Affairs, from 13 October 1993 to 22 January 1996.

In the administration of Costas Simitis, he was the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Parliament for a number of years.