Euclid Tsakalotos

Euclid Tsakalotos
Ευκλείδης Τσακαλώτος
Tsakalotos in 2017
Minister of Finance
In office
23 September 2015 – 9 July 2019
Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras
Preceded byGeorge Chouliarakis
Succeeded byChristos Staikouras
In office
6 July 2015 – 28 August 2015
Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras
Preceded byYanis Varoufakis
Succeeded byGeorge Chouliarakis
Alternate Minister for International Economic Relations
In office
27 January 2015 – 6 July 2015
Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras
MinisterNikos Kotzias
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
Assumed office
6 May 2012
ConstituencyAthens B
Personal details
Born19 June 1960 (1960-06-19) (age 64)
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Political partyNew Left (since December 2023)
Other political
affiliations
Syriza (until November 2023)
SpouseHeather Gibson
Children3
Alma materQueen's College, Oxford
Institute of Development Studies
Mansfield College, Oxford
Signature
Academic career
FieldMonetary economics
Managerial economics
National accounts
InstitutionsUniversity of Kent (1989–1993)
Athens University of Economics and Business (1993–2010)
University of Athens (2010–present)

Euclid Stefanou Tsakalotos (Greek: Ευκλείδης Στεφάνου Τσακαλώτος,[1] Greek pronunciation: [efˈkliðis steˈfanu t͜sakaˈlotos]; born 1960) is a Greek economist and politician who was Minister of Finance of Greece from 2015 to 2019. He was also a member of the Central Committee of Syriza and has represented Athens B in the Hellenic Parliament since May 2012.[2] He left Syriza in November 2023 and on 5 December 2023 he became founding member of New Left (Greece) parliamentary group.

Tsakalotos was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, but moved to the United Kingdom at a young age. He went to St Paul's School in London before studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, University of Oxford. He went on to complete a master's degree at the Institute of Development Studies, which is attached to the University of Sussex, and returned to Oxford to complete a doctorate in economics under the supervision of Włodzimierz Brus, which he did in 1989. From 1989 to 1993, Tsakalotos worked at the University of Kent, where he met his partner, Heather D. Gibson. He moved to Greece, and taught at the Athens University of Economics and Business from 1994 to 2010, becoming a professor of economics. Since 2010, he has been a professor of economics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has written a number of books in both Greek and English and has been published in a range of different academic journals. Due to his upbringing in the UK, he speaks English with a British accent.

A student member of the Communist Party of Greece, Tsakalotos joined Synaspismos in the early 1990s and was elected to the Central Committee of Syriza in 2004 shortly after their formation. He was first elected as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens B in the May 2012 legislative election and has been re-elected in every election since. In opposition from 2012 to 2015, he was Syriza's shadow finance minister. When Syriza entered government in January 2015, Tsakalotos was appointed as an Alternate Minister within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In April, he took over as head of Greece's negotiating team on the third bailout package. On 6 July 2015, following Yanis Varoufakis's resignation, Tsakalotos was appointed as Minister of Finance. He was re-appointed in September 2015 following the snap legislative election.

  1. ^ Hellenic Parliament: MPs' contact details Note: Modern Greek middle names are typically a patronymic in the genitive case; thus, Stefanou from his father's name, Stefanos.
  2. ^ "Euclid Tsakalotos: Greece's new finance minister". BBC News. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2021.