Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou

Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou Βασιλική Θάνου-Χριστοφίλου
184th Prime Minister of Greece
In office 27 August 2015 – 21 September 2015
President	Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Preceded by	Alexis Tsipras
Succeeded by	Alexis Tsipras
President of the Court of Cassation
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2015
President	Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Preceded by	Athanasios Koutroumanos
Personal details
Born	1950 (age 65–66) Chalcis, Greece
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Athens Panthéon-Assas University
Religion	Greek Orthodoxy

Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou (Greek: Βασιλική Θάνου-Χριστοφίλου, Greek pronunciation: [vasiliˌci ˌθanu xristoˈfilu]; born 1950), also known as Vassiliki Thanou, is a Greek judge who served as caretaker Prime Minister of Greece from 27 August to 21 September 2015, in the run-up to the 20 September 2015 elections. She was Greece's first ever female Prime Minister and the 184th since 1822.

Thanou-Christophilou has served as the President of the Court of Cassation, one of Greece's three supreme courts, since 1 July 2015, and is currently the most senior judge in Greece. She teaches civil law at the National School of Judges of Greece and has been, since 2012, the President of the Greek Association of Judges and Prosecutors (SAD).

Early life

Thanou-Christophilou was born in Chalcis and studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens before completing post-graduate studies in European law at Panthéon-Assas University.^[1]

Career

Thanou-Christophilou first entered the judiciary in 1975, and became the President of the Court of First Instance in 1992. She became an appellate judge in 1996 and subsequently President of the Appeals Court in 2005. In 2008, she became a judge in the Court of Cassation aone of Greece's three supreme courts.^[1]

Since 2009, Thanou-Christophilou has taught civil law at the National School of Judges in Greece.^[1] Thanou-Christophilou is also the President of the Greek Association of Judges and Prosecutors (SAD), having first been elected in 2012 for a two-year term, and re-elected for the same period of time in 2014.^[2] In 2014, she also became the Vice President of the Court of Cassation.^[1]

On 1 July 2015, she succeeded Athanasios Koutroumanos as President of the Court of Cassation, following the former's retirement. Her appointment came at the recommendation of Nikos Paraskevopoulos, the Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights.^[1] Thanou-Christophilou therefore became the 42nd President of the Court of Cassation since 1835, and the second ever female President after Rena Asimakopoulou.^[3] Due to her seniority as a President of a Greek supreme court, she is also the President of the Supreme Electoral Court.^[2]

Prime Minister of Greece

On 20 August 2015, Alexis Tsipras, who had been the Prime Minister of Greece since January 2015, resigned and asked for an interim government to be formed before an election could be held on 20 September. Constitutionally, before appointing the interim government, the President of Greece had to allow opposition parties several days to attempt to form their own government. After this process was completed, the President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, had to appoint an interim government until the election could be held.^[4][5] According to Article 37 of the Constitution of Greece, a president of one of the three Greek supreme courts must fill the role of interim Prime Minister, which therefore meant that Thanou-Christophilou had to fill the role as she was the only sitting President.^[4][5][6]

On 27 August, Pavlopoulos formally announced that he would be appointing Thanou-Christophilou as Prime Minister that day, as negotiations with opposition parties had failed. Her caretaker cabinet was sworn in on 28 August. She was to serve as Prime Minister until a legislative election was held, on 20 September.^[7] She became Greece's first ever female Prime Minister, and the 184th since 1822.^[8][2] At her swearing-in ceremony, she noted, "the caretaker government’s duties are mainly holding the elections in a fair and smooth fashion."^[9]

One of the main issues that Thanou-Christophilou had to face as Prime Minister was the European migrant crisis. At one meeting, she said, "the migrant and refugee issue that was recently significantly enlarged and coincided with the term of the caretaker government."^[10] During her tenure, she met with Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Commissioner for European Immigration and Home Affairs to discuss the crisis.^[11]

Personal life

Thanou-Christophilou is married and has three children.^[1] She speaks Greek, French and English fluently.^[2]

See also

• Caretaker Cabinet of Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou

References

1. Chrysopoulos, Philip (20 August 2015). "The Judge Who Could be Greece’s First Female Prime Minister". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
2. "ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΚΟ THΣ ΝΕΑΣ ΠΡΟΕΔΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑΡΕΙΟΥ ΠΑΓΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗΣ ΘΑΝΟΥ – ΧΡΙΣΤΟΦΙΛΟΥ". Court of Cassation (in Greek). Retrieved 26 August 2015.
3. Ελευθερία, Κόλλια (4 July 2015). "Βασιλική Θάνου-Χριστοφίλου: Η συνδικαλίστρια που έγινε πρόεδρος του Αρείου Πάγου". To Vima (in Greek). Retrieved 26 August 2015.
4. Khan, Mehreen (20 August 2015). "Opposition seek to form minority government after Tsipras resigns and calls snap election: as it happened". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
5. Henley, Jon (20 August 2015). "Greek bailout: Alexis Tsipras steps down to trigger new elections". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
6. Maltezou, Renee (27 August 2015). "Anti-austerity judge Thanou becomes first female Greek PM". Reuters. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
7. "Greece vote set for 20 September as interim PM takes office". BBC News. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
8. "Greece's caretaker government sworn in with first female prime mimister". The Guardian. Associated Press in Athens. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
9. Hopkins, Claire (1 September 2015). "Vassiliki Thanou – first woman to head Greece Government". Press Examiner. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
10. Zikakou, Ioanna (13 September 2015). "Greek PM Chairs Meeting on Refugee Crisis in Mytilene". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
11. "Avramopoulos meets PM, officials in Athens for talks on migration crisis". Kathimerini. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

External links

• Media related to Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou at Wikimedia Commons