Antonis Samaras (Greek: Αντώνης Σαμαράς, pronounced [anˈdonis samaˈɾas]; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. He also founded the Political Spring party, which he led as president from 1993 to 2004, when he returned to New Democracy. He has been Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) for Messenia since 2007, having previously served at the same role from 1977 to 1996. He was also a Member of the European Parliament for Greece from 2004 to 2007.
Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 (with a brief interruption in 1990) and Minister of Culture in 2009. Samaras was expelled from the ruling party in November 2024.
In September 1993, two New Democracy MPs defected from the parliamentary group, aligning with Samaras's party, causing Konstantinos Mitsotakis's government to lose its parliamentary majority and resign, triggering new elections. Samaras's role in the government's fall led to a complete rift between the two politicians, Mitsotakis and Samaras. In spite of this, he rejoined the party in 2004 and was elected to its leadership in a closely fought intra-party election in late 2009. He was the seventh party leader since it was founded in 1974.
In the years that followed, he remained a member of parliament representing the region of Messenia, until November 2024 when he was again expelled from the party's parliamentary group and from New Democracy, due to his criticism of the foreign policy of the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Born in Athens, Samaras is the son of Konstantinos Samaras (a professor of cardiology) and Lena (née Zannas, a maternal granddaughter of author Penelope Delta). His brother, Alexander, is an architect. His paternal uncle, George Samaras, was a long-standing Member of Parliament for Messinia in the 1950s and 1960s.
Samaras grew up among well-connected families of Athens. At the age of 17, he won the Greek Teen Tennis Championship. He attended school in the Athens College (founded by his maternal great-grandfather, Stefanos Delta, and his great-great-grandfather, Emmanouil Benakis) and graduated from Amherst College in 1974 with a degree in economics, and then from Harvard University in 1976 with an MBA.
Samaras and former Prime Minister George Papandreou were dormitory roommates during their student years at Amherst College, but became bitter political rivals. He is married and has a daughter and a son. His daughter Lena, a civil engineer, died from a cardiac arrest and a seizure on 7 August 2025 at the age of 34.
Samaras has been elected as a member of parliament, initially for Messinia, from 1977 onward. In 1989 he became minister of finance, later advancing to become the minister of foreign affairs in the New Democracy government of Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis (1990–1993), from which post he caused the Macedonia naming dispute to ignite. In a meeting of the Greek political leaders under the president of the republic on the naming dispute on 13 April 1992, Samaras presented his own conditions for the solution of the crisis. These were rejected by both the president of the republic, Konstantinos Karamanlis, as well as the prime minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis. Samaras was subsequently removed from Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Foundation of Political Spring
After being removed from his post, Samaras founded his own party, Political Spring (Greek: Πολιτική Άνοιξη, romanised as Politiki Anoixi), located politically to the right of New Democracy. The defection of one Member of Parliament from New Democracy to Samaras's party caused the government's fall from power in 1993.
Political Spring gained 4.9% of the vote in the 1993 general election, earning ten seats in the Hellenic Parliament. It gained 8.7% in the 1994 European Parliament election, earning two seats. Its decline began in the 1996 general election, when it gained 2.94 per cent, just below the 3 per cent threshold necessary to enter parliament. It participated in the 1999 European Parliament election, but only got 2.3%, which was not enough to elect MEPs.
Political Spring did not participate in the 2000 general election; Samaras publicly supported the New Democracy party. Before the 2004 general election, Samaras dissolved his party, rejoined New Democracy and he was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2004 European elections.
In the 2007 general election he was elected to the Hellenic Parliament for Messinia and consequently resigned from the European Parliament. He was succeeded by Margaritis Schinas. In January 2009 he was appointed Minister of Culture following a government reshuffle. In this capacity he inaugurated the new Acropolis Museum in July 2009. He was reelected in Messenia in 2009.
After New Democracy resoundingly lost the 2009 legislative election, Kostas Karamanlis resigned as head of the party, prompting a leadership race, and Samaras ran for the post. Early polls showed he was running neck-and-neck with the perceived initial favorite Dora Bakoyanni, the former Foreign Minister and former Athens mayor. Shortly thereafter, another leadership candidate, former Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, announced he was resigning his candidacy and would instead support Samaras. In a break with previous practice, an extraordinary party congress resolved that the new leader would be elected by party members in a countrywide ballot. Samaras's candidacy soared in opinion polls and finished the race as a favorite.
Leader of the Opposition (2009–2012, 2015)
In the early morning hours of 30 November 2009, Samaras was elected the new President of New Democracy. Following early results showing Samaras in a comfortable lead, Bakoyanni, his main rival, conceded defeat and called Samaras to congratulate him. He accepted his election with a speech at the party headquarters, and pledged to carry out a broad ideological and organizational reform, aspiring to regain majority status. He was later instrumental in the expulsion of Bakoyanni (2010) for defying the party line and voting for an austerity measure required for European Union-International Monetary Fund backed lending.
Prime Minister George Papandreou announced his government's plans on 31 October to hold a referendum on the acceptance of the terms of a Eurozone bailout deal. The referendum was to be held in December 2011 or January 2012. Following vehement opposition from both within and outside the country, Papandreou however scrapped the plan a few days later on 3 November.
On 5 November, Papandreou's government only narrowly won a confidence vote in the Greek Parliament, and he called for immediate elections. The next day, Papandreou met with opposition leaders trying to reach an agreement on the formation of an interim national unity government. However, Samaras only gave in after Papandreou agreed to step aside, allowing the EU bailout to proceed and paving the way for elections on 19 February 2012.