Names and biographies of the 42 candidates of MeRA25 | Subversive Ecological Left
Varoufakis: We are here to upset the system and the oligarchy
Today the full composition of the European candidate list of the united initiative MeRA25 | Subversive Ecological Left was presented.
In his brief statement the secretary of MeRA25 said:
We are here to show the huge gap between the reality experienced by 80% of the country’s citizens and the propaganda of triumphalism about Greece’s economic situation. We express the voices of those who are drowning in this reality. Something that, of course, neither the New Democracy Party nor any of the three PASOKs, Mr Androulakis, Mr Kasselakis or Mr Haritsis, can do.
We are here to spoil the system. That is why they hate us. But we take strength from this hatred. Can you imagine if we were cheered like Schäuble cheered Tsakalotos, or if the energy companies cheered us like Stathakis, who built the Energy Exchange for them? Or Latsis saying thank you to us like he said to Tsipras and Mitsotakis for the Greek island?
We are taking a stand to show how the whole of Europe is turning into a “stupid” continent that is sinking into crisis, bleeding for armaments while its industrial production is being transferred to the US and China. And of course we are taking a stand to denounce the EU’s attitude towards the genocide in Palestine and the imposition of bans even on voices that oppose this policy. In all areas we take a stand and become a nuisance to the system and the oligarchy.
That is why our call is focused precisely there: Upset them by sending MERA25 | Subversive Ecological Left to the European Parliament.
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The names, qualities and full CVs of the 42 MEP candidates are listed below. Also available at: https://mera25.gr/evroekloges/
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Ayubi Sandy
Journalist | Born in 1973 in Lebanon and came to Greece in 1995 to study. He studied Arabic studies in France and postgraduate studies in modern and contemporary Greek history (NKUA). He is a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic history.
Since 2003 he has worked as a journalist, a writer in Arab and Greek media.
He has been involved in translation and teaching Arabic and Greek.
President of the “Development Forum” involved in educational, social and humanitarian activities. Volunteer in humanitarian campaigns within Greece.
Athanasopoulou Vassiliki
Lawyer | Born and raised in Athens. She studied at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) and practiced litigation law. Currently, she works at the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, in the field of welfare. She participated in the youth mobilizations of 2006-2007 and December 2008. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Law Students’ Association and was active in the student movement through the ranks of the EAK.
She participated in the struggles against anti-education laws, the dismissal of university administrators, authoritarianism and repression, in the squares, in the anti-memorandum and anti-fascist struggles. Through the Alternative Intervention – Lawyers’ Revolt, she fought for the defence of democratic freedoms.
She is a member of the P.G. and the P.C. of the Popular Unity – Progressive Left. In the regional elections of 2019 and 2023, she participated as a candidate for regional councillor with Anypodist Attica.
Ammanatidou – Paschalidou, Evangelia (Litsa)
Merchant, Former Parliamentarian | Born in 1966 and grew up in Thessaloniki. She graduated from the First High School of Charilaou and has been residing in Mesimeri, Thessaloniki since 1995. She is a former agricultural machinery dealer. Since 1984 she has been affiliated with the Left (including parties such as the KKE, SYN, SYRIZA, and LAE AA) while simultaneously being an active member of various associations, including Women’s, Parents & Guardians, Environmental, and the Supervisory Council of the Federation of Rural Associations of Thessaloniki from 1990 to 1993. Elected MP in the 2nd Chamber of Thessaloniki from September 2007 to August 2015 with SYRIZA, from where she left Parliament by voting against the 3rd Memorandum. During her parliamentary term as a member and for 7 months chairman of the “Committee on Production and Trade”, she was mainly concerned with issues of small and medium-sized enterprises and agricultural production. She is a member of the Left Current and the Central Committee of the Popular Unity (LAE AA). She was a candidate for the European Parliament in 2019 with the Popular Unity.
Andricopoulos, Tzoumas Panagiotis
Farmer | Born in 1983 and grew up in Kalamaria, Thessaloniki.
He attended the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki without completing his studies, and since 2004, has been living and working as a farmer in Nisi, Imathia. He has been active in the community since 2002. In 2012, he was a candidate for the Pella Parliament with SYRIZA. He is involved in the history of the farms in the plain of Giannitsa. He has a 17-year-old daughter, Ariti.
Asimakopoulou, Eleftheria (Erika)
Official | Mathematician working in a high-tech company, in the banking systems sales sector, watching first-hand the cutting edge of technology dramatically changing production, daily life, and the economy.
She believes that AI is the ultimate means of liberation and means of enslavement at the same time – just as a knife can be a deadly weapon and an effective tool, depending on who wields it.
Active in the anti-fascist movement from a young age, she understands the consequences of actions and resistance, but doesn’t limit herself to social class labels, but rather emphasizes intentional collective efforts, because frustrations can dissolve movements and lives. Being a trade unionist, she tries to bring workers into the collective struggle. Nothing is done by delegation, the only solution is the active participation of all.
Vardami, Patty
Economics, Political Studies, Contemporary Art | She was born in Tirana and immigrated to Athens with her family in 1991. She studied Economics, Political Studies, Contemporary Philosophy and Art in Athens and London. She is a feminist and migrant rights activist and is interested in intersectionality as the political tool of the contemporary Left. She is one of the first members of the pan-European organization DiEM25.
Varoufakis, Yanis
Economist, Professor of Economics, Secretary of MP25, former MP and Minister | He was born in 1961 in Athens. Economist, professor, writer.
Studied mathematics and economics in Britain, where he taught at Essex, East Anglia, Glasgow, and Cambridge Universities, before “emigrating” to Australia as a professor at the University of Sydney. In 2000 he returned to Greece and took up a position as Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens. In 2012-2014 he taught at the University of Texas, Austin. In January 2015, he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Athens, garnering the most votes in the country, and became Minister of Finance. After five and a half months of fierce confrontation with the Troika, he resigned as minister on the night of the 5 July 2015 referendum and continued his opposition to policies that reproduce the crisis on a pan-European level.
On 9 February 2016 in Berlin, with European politicians and intellectuals, he co-founded the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25. In 2019, MerA25, the Greek electoral arm of DiEM25, entered Parliament with 9 seats.
Venetsanou, Nena
Performer – Artist | Born in Athens in 1955. She studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Besançon (France) and studied singing with Irma Kolasi in Paris (1973-1977). In 1977 she joined the Autonomous Feminist Movement “Movement for the Liberation of Women”. Her songs remain a reference point of the Women’s Movement in Greece.
She participated repeatedly in the left-wing electoral lists, but after the signing of the debt submission and the NO vote that became YES, she supports MeRA25, acting politically, socially, and culturally for an Anti-Fascist political front and for the Feminist Movement in Greece and Europe. She has been honored by the International Peace Bureau for her contribution to peace and culture and she is a Knight of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.
Giannoulaki, Athena
Municipal Clerk | Born in Chania, where she lives and works. She has studied Library and Museum Education, and holds a Postgraduate Diploma of Specialization (PDS) in Communication & Culture from the Department of Journalism and Mass Media at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Active in the independent trade union movement and labor rights advocacy, servingas the President of the Association of Local Government Employees (OTA) in the region of Chania for 8 years until recently. Additionally, she is a member of the Central Committee of the Federation of Greek Municipalities and Communities Workers (POE-OTA). Since her student years she has been politically active in collectives associated with the radical left. In 2010 she joined SYRIZA, but later left the party in 2015 after the signing of the third memorandum.
Since 2019, she has been actively involved in the MeRA25 project, where she serves as a member of the Political Secretariat. Additionaly, she was a candidate for councilor in both 2019 and 2023.
She actively participates in collective activist actions related to social solidarity and the environment, as well as in advocacy efforts for the issues affecting Chania and Crete.
Gregoriadis, Cleon
Actor, former MP | Born 1965 in Athens. Graduated from Art Theatre, has taken part in a number of performances, films and TV series. He has always been political, with a strong public stance in favor of the NO vote in the 2015 referendum.
In 2019, he was elected as a Member of Parliament with MeRA25, where, as a Parliamentary Representative, he stood up against the oligarchy, becoming the target of lawsuits from a well-known oligarch, media mogul, and team leader. He continues to fight because he loves it!
Dioti, Iro
Political Scientist, Former Councilor | Born in 1979 in Cholargos. She is a graduate of the Department of International European, Economic and Political Studies of the University of Macedonia and a postgraduate student at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Athens.
From 2009 to 2015, she was elected three times as a member of the Larissa council of SYRIZA, when she resigned after the passage of the third memorandum. From 2016 to 2023 she worked in the refugee field. She has served as chairman of the Environment Committee of the Parliament, regional councillor of Thessaly from 2014- 2017, member of the School Committee of the Municipality of Larissa and is President of the Parents’ Association. He is also a member of the PTA, a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Larnaca, and a member of the PTA.
She was actively involved in movements for the environment, rights, immigration. In 2023 she was a candidate for the national elections with MP25 and since February 2024 she is co-coordinator of the Central Committee of MP25.
She is the mother of a boy.
El Masri, Faisal Zachariah
Medical Surgeon | He is a Palestinian doctor from the West Bank. He has been in Greece since 1970, married to a Greek woman and they have two children and three grandchildren.
He is a medical doctor, general surgeon-mastrologist, former director of the National Health System in a health centre in Thessaloniki and an auditor.
He was a founder of the first Palestinian student association in Greece after the post-independence period, founder of the Palestinian community in Thessaloniki, and president of the Palestinian Association of Northern Greece. He served as a volunteer in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon for 4 years. He is a member of the Pan-Palestinian Medical Association and a member of the central council of the Red Crescent.
Edman, Erik – Miltiades
Political Scientist | He is a Greek-Swedish Athenian, born in 1992. He holds a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Exeter and an MA in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). During his student years he was active in the mobilizations against the tuition fee increase in the UK, as well as in the Indignados movement in Greece. Since 2015 he has been living and working in Brussels, where he took up the position of Director of DiEM25 in 2019.
In addition to being a member of the DiEM25 Steering Committee, he has served as a campaign manager for MERA25 in the 2019 European elections, in which he was a candidate for the European Parliament. Since 2023, he has been the Press Spokesperson of MERA25 and in 2024 he was elected to the party’s Central Committee.
Zervoudakis, Dimitris
Music Composer | Born, studied and lives permanently in Messimeri, Thessaloniki. After finishing high school he studied at the N.O.E. of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and as a student, within the framework of the Student Club of Theater and Cinema he started to work with music – from 1983 as an amateur and as a professional until today.
He is exclusively involved in music production. Concerts are the main field of his professional activity. In addition, he serves as president of the Association of Musicians of Northern Greece.
Zerdelis, John
Doctor, former Member of Parliament | He studied Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Rural doctor (Rural Service) in Mantamados, Lesbos, President of the Association of Rural Doctors of Lesbos (1984-85), specialized in Pathology and since 1991 has maintained a private practice in Mytilene.
He was a prefectural councillor of Lesbos for two four-year terms (1998-2006) and was a candidate for Mayor of Mytilene in 2006. From 1992-2012, he worked at the IKA from which he resigned after his election as a Member of Parliament of Lesbos with SYRIZA. He served as chairman of the Social Affairs Committee of the Parliament in 2015 until the elections of the same year. He voted against the Third Memorandum and joined the LFA.
President of the Open Sea Sailing Club of Lesbos with participation and distinctions in international competitions.
Theocharakis, Nikos
Professor of Political Economy, Department of Economics, University of Athens | Born 1956 in Athens. He is a member of the Political Secretariat and co-coordinator of the Central Committee of MERA25. Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Economics of the University of Athens (ΕΚΠΑ), a graduate of the Varvakeio High School, holds a degree in Economics from ΕΚΠΑ and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He has written three books – two on Yanis Varoufakis – and many articles in academic journals.
In March 2015 he was appointed Secretary General for Fiscal Policy and Greece’s representative to the Eurogroup Working Group. He led the Greek side of the Brussels Group in negotiations with the institutions until May 2015. He was President and Scientific Director of the Centre for Planning and Economic Research (CEPE) and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Athens Concert Hall. He is a member of the advisory board of The Centre for Post-Capitalist Culture. He is the director of the MSc in Economics program and the chairman of the doctoral studies committee. He was a member of the Democratic Struggle at the University and a representative of his faculty at the congress of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of University Professors.
Ioakimidis, Dimitris (Jo Di)
Dentist, Graphic Designer | He was born in 1982 in Nea Ionia, Magnesia and moved to Thessaloniki to study at the School of Dentistry of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, graduating in 2008. During his studies, he participated in the Students’ Association, with the independent Enotic Autonomous Movement of Dentistry.
He moved to the Netherlands in 2010, working as a dentist in Groningen and The Hague. Since 2021 he has also been in charge of the management of the dental emergency clinic at Westeinde Hospital. Outside of his professional career, he is involved in music and online content creation.
He created one of the first blogs in Greece and since 2013, through the website jodi.graphics, he informs and comments on political events in Greece and Europe.
He has been living for the last 17 years with his partner George and recently with his cat Momo.
Kallinikidis, Abraham (Akis)
Professional Athlete | He was born in 1977 in Athens, where he still lives today with his partner and daughter. He grew up in Kypseli and experienced first-hand all the stages of its development into a multicultural and diverse city.
He is a professional basketball player with a career spanning almost 29 years, competing until this moment at the highest level. He has occasionally lived in Finland and Sweden and worked in these countries in his field (refugee athlete-coach).
Karakitsou, Maria
Actress | She was born and lives in the center of Athens. She is an actress and a member of the Political Secretariat of MeRA25. She studied at the Drama School and International Relations at Panteion University, bridging the gap between art and politics, always moving within the Leftist sphere.
The vision of a Europe of the peoples and not of the oligarchy has led her to participate in DiEM25 from the beginning of its foundation. She is an active member of the Gender Equality and LGBTQI+ Sector and the Culture Sector of DiEM25.
With MeRA25, she fights daily against patriarchy, the erosion of our labor rights, and the privatization of public goods.
Katopodi, Irini
University Professor (Retired) | She was born in Vournikas, Lefkada.
She studied Civil Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with postgraduate studies in Delft, the Netherlands. For 41 years she worked as a Research Associate at the Department of Civil Engineering of the Democritus University of Thrace in Xanthi. Besides teaching, she has presented papers internationally in Port Projects with an emphasis on coastal erosion. For many years she has been a member or leader of pan-European research groups conducting theoretical and experimental research in European Union countries in the field of marine science and technology. Member of MERA25 since 2019, and active member of the education, insularity and foreign affairs sectors. Candidate for Regional Councillor of the Ionian Islands (for Lefkada) in 2023 with the Left Aggressive Cooperation in the Ionian Islands.
Active in social movements especially after the country’s inclusion in the memoranda.
Kendrou, Despina
Economist, Canterbury University | She is an economist – Assistant Professor of Finance at Canterbury University. Mother of two little girls, she was born (1983) in Patras. She studied at ASOEE. She was a scholarship holder in all her postgraduate studies. She earned a Master’s degree from the University of Piraeus, an MPhil from the University of Manchester, and a Ph.D. from the ICMA Centre, with a research focus on Socially Responsible Investments.
At the same time she has worked and has many years of experience in small businesses, multinationals, NGOs, and she had her own company in Patras. In the midst of the crisis she found a job abroad as an academic. Apart from Canterbury, she has taught at the Universities of Manchester, Reading, Birmingham and the Beijing Institute of Technology.
She opposes war, imperialist rivalries that lead to the devastation of Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, and the economic impoverishment that fuels fascism in Europe.
Kontouli, Ioanna
Surveying Engineer | Mother of two boys, born in Athens, originally from Messinia-Arcadia. A Surveying Engineer with an MSc in “Environment and Development” from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), she has worked as a freelance professional. She has also taught Photointerpretation/Remote Sensing academically and has been a member of MOD S.A. since 2002.
Since her student years she has been on the left, after ’89 in Political Ecology, and since 2000 she has been actively involved in social-environmental movements (“Intermunicipal Committee for the Rescue of Ymittos”, “A Boat for Gaza”, etc.).
Head of the Ecological Greens in the 2012 elections, candidate for Mayor of Athens of the “Initiative for a New Ecological Athens” (Pnoka) in 2014, candidate for the Athens City Council in 2015 as an independent with SYRIZA.
Between 2016-2018 she served as President of “Building Infrastructure S.A.”, with a focus on defending the public interest and important work. Since the 2019 elections, she has distanced himself and is now rallying in the unifying initiative MERA25 | Subversive Ecological Left for a modern subversive space, with a proposal for what others are diligently concealing.
Koronaiou, Alexandra
University Graduate – Sociologist | Professor Emeritus of Sociology and former Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Panteion University.
Member of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee of MeRA25.
Born in Piraeus, studied at the University of Ioannina and Paris V University. She taught at Paris V, the University of Athens, and since 1998 at the Department of Psychology of Panteion University. She was vice-president of the Scientific Council of Social Sciences and member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute of Educational Policy for the writing of secondary school textbooks. Since 2021, she has been a member of the General Assembly of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (ELIDEK).
Coming from a resistance family, she actively participated in the student movement against the dictatorship. She supports the positions of the radical left in her writing, in social movements and in public discourse (articles, media).
Krasopoulou, Alexandra (Aleka)
Educator (Retired) | She was born in 1963 in New York and grew up in Drama.
She worked for many decades in education with union activity and served as the secretary of the Second Regional Association of Secondary Education Teachers (Β’ ΕΛΜΕ) in Thessaloniki. Member of the Central Committee of the Coalition and then member of the Secretariat of SYRIZA A’ Thessaloniki until 2015, and member of the Anametris until today. Candidate of the Municipal Movement “The City Upside Down”. Her activity is mainly focused on the field of social solidarity. She is actively involved in initiatives and collective efforts for rights and public goods, participating in actions to protect and promote the rights of migrants and refugees. She played an active role in the “Save the Water” campaign, supported the self-management project of VIOME, and were involved in the movement to improve public transportation in Thessaloniki.
Kritsotakis, Michalis
Educator, Former Member of Parliament | He was born in Heraklion, Crete and worked as a teacher in secondary and tertiary education, with a Master’s degree in Organizational Management. He was, among other things, General Secretary of the Municipality of Heraklion and the Labour Centre of Heraklion. He was elected prefectural councillor in 2006 with the ‘Prefectural Intervention of Citizens and Ecology’.
He was elected as a SYRIZA MP in Heraklion for the first time in the 2009 elections, re-elected in May 2012, June 2012, and January 2015.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Administration, Public Order and Justice of the Parliament. In 2014 he was a candidate for regional governor in the region of Crete, receiving 18% of the vote. On 21 August 2015, he was one of the 25 SYRIZA MPs who formed a new parliamentary group called “Laiki Enotita”.
Kyparissidis, Kokkinidis Thomas (Makis)
Ph.D. Candidate in Economics | He was born in Kalamaria in 1992 and is the son of George and Tarsitsa Kallimpaka. He studied Economics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Roma Tre University where he has received a full scholarship.
He has been organized on the left since his student days. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Students’ Association of Economics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, elected with the Left Unity. He was a member of the SYRIZA youth in the period of 2012-2015.
Since then, he remains active in the Left and its reconstruction efforts.
In 2023, he was a candidate for regional councillor with the Alliance of Resistance and Subversion led by Despina Charalambidou in the region of Central Macedonia and today he stands with the unifying initiative MERA25 | Subversive Ecological Left.
Lapavitsas, Kostas
University Student, Former Member of Parliament | Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
He has an extensive and internationally recognized academic record in financial theory, economic development, monetary unions and economic history. In particular, he specializes in Japan and has many years of experience in development policy formulation in the Far East. He has taught at a number of major international universities in Tokyo, California, New York City, Buenos Aires, Ankara, and elsewhere. He writes articles in the international and Greek press.
Since his teenage years he has been actively involved in the labor movement and left-wing political action in Greece, Britain and elsewhere. In 2015, he was elected as a member of the Parliament of Imathia with SYRIZA, but left with the Popular Unity party when the Third Memorandum was signed.
Michelakou, Kalliopi (Poppy)
Child Psychiatrist | She was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up in Pefki, Attica.
She graduated from the Medical School of Ioannina, Greece, obtained her specialty as a Child Psychiatrist and has been trained in Group, Family and Expressive Psychotherapy through Art.
She works in Primary Mental Health, prevention and treatment. For 15 years she was an NHS doctor, Director of Community Mental Health Centre for Children and Adolescents at Preveza Hospital, until her resignation in August 2023, as a last resort to highlight the collapse of public mental health.
Active in the Social Clinic of Preveza, the anti-racist and the anti-mining movement. She was a board member of the Medical Association of Preveza and the trade union body for hospital doctors. From being a student involved with the Left, KNE, and KKE, to their participation in the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) until July 2015. Since then, she has been an active participant in unifying efforts to reconstruct the progressive Left.
Moschos, Christos
Veterinarian-Farmer | He was born in Kastoria on 22 December 1987, from a family of cattle breeders. With a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Sofia, he started his professional career in 2014, establishing his own veterinary practice.
In 2023, together with his brother, he was awarded for excellence in organic farming in Europe.
He successfully manages the Calf Farm and cooperates with sheep and cattle farms. With a dedication to animal health and sustainable agriculture, he continues to demonstrate commitment to the field of veterinary medicine. Member of MeRA25 with significant participation in agricultural mobilizations.
Moulianitis, Vassilis
Professor, University of Peloponnese | He was born in Arta in 1973.
He holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1996) and a Ph.D. (2004) from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering of the University of Patras. He served as a contract lecturer (2005) and Assistant Professor (2018) at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean. He is a Professor (2023) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peloponnese.
His main research focuses on Mechatronics, Robotics and Design Theory and Methodology using Artificial Intelligence techniques. He has participated in many research projects funded by Greek and European Union sources. He has more than a hundred papers in international journals and conferences.
He is married to Ioanna Samsonis, and together they are raising two wonderful foster daughters.
Barsevsky, Maria-Anna (Mania)
Philologist, Lawyer, Journalist | Philologist and lawyer, with postgraduate studies in History and Philosophy of Law.
She has worked as a journalist covering international news and is a member of the Association of Magazine and Electronic Press Editors.
Actively involved in the left and its movements since she was a schoolgirl, in her student years she was a political prisoner for 18 months in Korydallos and Patras prisons because of her solidarity with the Palestinian people, a reason why she was also deported by the Israeli government during a journalistic visit to Palestine in 2002. She has been a member of the Network for Civil and Social Rights for decades, participating in the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement and in struggles against state repression. Former member of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee of SYRIZA, responsible for the Department of Rights, left in 2015 due to the approval of the memoranda. Since then, she has been participating in the League of Independent Leftists and is a member of its Political Secretariat. She is particularly active in the movement against the auctions of people’s housing and evictions. She is married and the mother of a daughter.
Bulbul Ali
Urban Planner | He was born in 1994 in Komotini. He graduated from the Minority Lyceum of Komotini. He studied Urban and Spatial Planning at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul and is an urban planner.
He has been an active member of DiEM25 and MERA25 since its foundation and is on the Central Committee of the party. He was a parliamentary candidate with MER25 in the May elections from Rhodope and headed the Rhodope ballot in June. He currently lives in Komotini.
Petrakos, Thanasis
Educator, Former Member of Parliament | He was born in Koroni, Messinia in 1954.
He studied Mathematics at the University of Athens. He actively participated in the anti-dictatorship struggle, the occupations of the Law School and the Polytechnic uprising.
He was elected MP for Messinia in the 2012 and 2015 elections and was a parliamentary representative of SYRIZA until July 2015. He resigned from the position of parliamentary representative after the passage of the Third Memorandum which he voted against and left SYRIZA because he could not betray the mandate of 62% of the people who voted NO to a new memorandum. Subsequently, along with other Members of Parliament who voted against the Third Memorandum, he participated in the founding of the Popular Unity party, of which he is a member of the Political Council.
He has been involved in local government for 30 years. He was prefectural councillor of Messinia from 1995-2010 and regional councillor of Peloponnese from 2011 to 2012. From 2019 until 31 December 2023, he was the head of the “Agonistic Cooperation of Peloponnese”.
Revenioti, Paola
Filmmaker | She was born in Keratsini. She attended the Naval Petty Officers’ School in Poros, where she did not graduate because she was expelled in a racist manner. She received her degree at Sygrou Avenue, did her master’s degree at Athinas Street and her doctorate at Kavala Avenue.
She taught Ethics and Creativity wherever she went, serving thousands of reputable fellow citizens. Unlike mainstream candidates, she shares the reality of everyday people, and even the most vulnerable. She participated in social struggles from the time of the heyday of Exarchia to the present day. She was the first elected president of the Solidarity Association of Trans Greece.
She was a candidate in the 1989 elections with the Ecologists-Nationalists (to the horror of half of her “comrades”) and in 2019 and 2023 with MeRA25. She was involved in creative ventures, such as publishing the magazine “Kraksin” or producing films with the “Paola Documentaries” group and the show she presented on “Radio MERA”. She raised a boy on her own, who, like so many others, has now taken the road to foreign countries.
Seferiadis, Seraphim
University Professor | Professor of Political Science at Panteion University (Ph.D., Columbia 1998), Life Member at the University of Cambridge (CLH), and Director of the Conflict Policy Laboratory.
For many years Secretary of the Hellenic Political Science Society, he was Senior Member at the University of Oxford and Fellow at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute of Florence, and Princeton University.
He has edited volumes on conflict politics, social science methodology and contemporary democratic functioning and has published dozens of articles in Greek and foreign journals. He has participated as a speaker in dozens of conferences in Greece and abroad, and his articles and book reviews are regularly published in the press. His latest Greek book: Για την πολιτική που διαμορφώνει: εργατικό κίνημα και κράτος [On the Politics that Shapes: Labor Movement and State] (2023).
Smyrlis, Alexis
Economist | He was born in 1980 in Athens. He studied Economics at the University of Piraeus. He has worked in the private sector as an accountant and business consultant.
A Marxist, he approaches politics dialectically: macroscopically and microscopically.
He has been with MER25 since its inception. Member of the Political Secretariat, Coordinator and one of the authors of the party’s political program, director of the Parliamentary Group during the period 2019-2023 and Coordinator of Political Planning.
Schult, Joachim (Jochen)
German Teacher (Retired) | Born in Düsseldorf, Germany, he emigrated to Greece in 1983 and has since then lived permanently in Athens.
He studied Law, Education and Psychology (Frankfurt, Cologne, Hagen and Athens). Since 1985 he has been working as a teacher of German. He is the father of four children who grew up in Athens and studied at the NTUA.
He has been retired since 2016 and obtained Greek citizenship in 2023.
Since 2017 until today he is an active member of DiEM25, being a member of the National Council of DiEM25 in Greece (2017 – 2021), member of the DiEM25 Steering Committee (2020 – present). Founding member of MER25, member of the Political Secretariat and chairman of the party’s Ethics Committee. In 2019 he was a candidate for the European elections with MERA25, and is currently also a member of the expanded Political Secretariat of MERA25 in Germany.
Stavropoulou, Anastasia
Lawyer | She grew up in Amfithea, Messini of Messinia. She is a graduate of the Law School of Athens, with postgraduate studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), and has published scientific textbooks and studies. She is a lawyer in Athens and lives in Exarchia. She is the mother of an infant.
She was an active member of the student movement, through the ranks of EAK. Today, she is active in the Athens Bar Association through the Alternative Intervention Lawyers’ Revolt, as well as in feminist, anti-racist and anti-fascist movements. She is a member of the Central Committee and the Political Secretariat of Popular Unity – Progressive Left. Founding member of the Initiative of Lawyers and Legal Professionals and a series of movements for democratic rights. Through interventions and articles, she has fought against democratic diversion and violation of rights, for the protection of the first home. Along with the fighting lawyers, she stands in defense of protesters and activists to overturn state repression.
Tzanetoulakou, Eftichia (Faye)
Ph.D. in Art History | She holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and is a university scholar at the University of Thessaly and a lecturer at the University of West Attica.
General Secretary of the Greek Section of the International Association of Art Critics, member of the environmental collective Active Citizens of Volos, and member of the Political Secretariat of MeRA25. She is conducting postdoctoral research at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Thessaly on contemporary Environmental Art.
She is an active member of the struggle against waste incineration at the AGET-LafargeHolcim plant in Volos, and has faced SLAPP persecutions.
She fights for the right to clean air, clean water, clean administration, which will implement caring practices for its citizens. She is actively and activistically involved in many movements in the country for the environment and human rights and in similar struggles for urban greening, and against mining and BOPE. She supports the ZERO WASTE movement.
Tsimitakis, Zacharias (Harris)
Student | He was born in 1998 in Sitia, Crete, where he spent his school years.
In 2017, he started studying at the School of Medicine of the University of Athens and since then he has been living in Athens.
As a student he was actively involved in the struggles against the Bank of Issues and in local movements for the protection of the environment, public space and natural resources. At university he is active in the student movement through the ranks of the EAK. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Athens Medical Students’ Association “Gr. Lambrakis” since 2017.
His mission is to contribute to the his generation’s fight to defend their rights and prospects, for freedoms, public and free education and health care. He actively participated in the magnificent student movement against the unconstitutional Pierrakakis Law for the establishment of private universities, which managed to isolate the government and turn the whole society against it. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Political Council of the Popular Unity – Progressive Left.
Tympas, Aristotle (Telis)
University Professor | He is a professor of the history of technology at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), specializing in the study of artificial intelligence and energy transitions. He studied chemical engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds a master’s and doctoral degree in technology-science policy and history-sociology of technology in the USA. He is director of an English-language master’s program in the interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology, Society, member of the Gender Equality Committee of the UoC, vice-president of research of the European Inter-University Association on Society, Science and Technology and action chair of a European research network on the role of new technology in shaping European borders and migration. He was chair of Tensions of Europe: Network on History, Technology and Europe, visiting scholar at MIT.
From the ECON Riga Feraios to the AKOA, the SYRIZA (until 2015), and the Anametrisi, he has been actively involved from his student days in collectives and movements related to political ecology, the renewable left, the removal of gender and racial discrimination, and the rights of pedestrians and people with disabilities.
Chaniotis, George
Actress | He was born in Athens in 1973. He studied acting and is a graduate of the Gymnastics Academy. For the last 30 years, he has been working in theater, film and television, while he is also involved with his band Imitate Your Mother. He also teaches improvization at the Theater of Changes.
He dreams of a fairer world, a state that does not cheat us, a Greece that makes us, if not proud, at least less ashamed. He supports MeRA25 to have a strong presence both in our country and in Europe.
Θέλεις να μαθαίνεις για τις δράσεις του ΜεΡΑ25; Γράψου εδώ.
