Adonis Georgiadis

Spyridon-Adonis Georgiadis (Greek: Σπυρίδων-Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης), better known as Adonis Georgiadis, is a Greek politician, telemarketer and publisher. Currently serving as the Minister for Development and Investment in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he is the Vice-President of New Democracy. He previously served as Deputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping in the Cabinet of Lucas Papademos (2011–2012) and Minister for Health in the Cabinet of Antonis Samaras (2013–2014).

Adonis Georgiadis
Minister for Development and Investment
Assumed office
9 July 2019
Prime MinisterKyriakos Mitsotakis
Preceded byYannis Dragasakis (Economy and Development)
Minister for Health
In office
25 June 2013 – 10 June 2014
Prime MinisterAntonis Samaras
Preceded byAndreas Lykourentzos
Succeeded byMakis Voridis
Vice President of New Democracy
Assumed office
18 January 2016
Serving with Kostis Hatzidakis
PresidentKyriakos Mitsotakis
Personal details
BornAthens, Greece
Political partyNew Democracy (2012–present)
Popular Orthodox Rally (2003–2012)
Spouse(s)Eugenia Manolidou
ChildrenAlkaios-Anastasios, Athanasios-Perseas
Alma materUniversity of Athens

Early career

Georgiadis' ancestry heralds from Lefkada, Macedonia (Amyntaio), Pontus, and Smyrna He started working at his father's bookstore at the age of 15.[1] He graduated from the Department of History and Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens.[2]

Political career

Career in municipal politics

Georgiadis served as the spokesman for the Popular Orthodox Rally from December 2003 until August 2007.[2] Georgiadis ran for the office of the Prefect of Athens in the 2006 elections [2][3] and on September 16, 2007 was elected a Member of the Greek parliament.[4] He was re-elected on October 4, 2009 for Athens Β. In November 2010 he was LAOS' candidate peripheral governor for Attica at the Municipal & Prefectural elections.

Career in national politics

On 11 November 2011, Georgiadis was appointed Deputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping in the coalition government of Lucas Papademos. He resigned on February 11, 2012. On February 13, he was crossed out of the parliamentary team of LAOS due to voting in favor of the Second Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece, against the party line.[5]

On 17 February 2012 Georgiadis joined New Democracy, having first given up his parliamentary seat to LAOS. He has since been elected a Member of Parliament, representing Athens B, in the May 2012, June 2012 and January 2015 elections.

He was appointed Minister for Health from June 2013 and served until June 2014. During his term in office, he gave free pharmaceutical coverage to more than 2.000.000 uninsured citizens,[6] with the cost being set at 340 million euros. He also merged hospitals and closed unnecessary ones, curbed the cost of medicine and completed the reform of the National Primary Health Care Network, a reform that had been announced since 1979 but was never done.

In September 2014 Georgiadis was appointed Parliamentary Spokesman for New Democracy. In the elections of January 2015 he was elected in the 2nd district of Athens with 70.853 votes and he was reelected in the September elections.

He was one of the four candidates in the 2015–16 New Democracy leadership election.[7] He campaigned for liberal reforms, tax cuts and cut of public spending and for an ideological battle with the Left, which he considers that it has an ideological hegemony. In the first round he got 11.40% (46,065 votes) and finished fourth. In the second round he supported Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won the elections and became new President of New Democracy. On 18 January, he was appointed as one of the two Vice-Presidents of the party.

Television

Georgiadis often appeared on TeleAsty news programmes, a TV channel founded and run by LAOS' leader Georgios Karatzaferis, expressing the opinions of his party. On his daily programme Ellinon Egersis (Greek Uprising; Greek: Ελλήνων Έγερσις) on TeleAsty, along with his brother Leonidas he commented on current affairs, and advertised books of mainly historical and philological interest, both from his family publishing house Ekdoseis Georgiadi and other Greek publishers. He also publishes the magazine Elliniki Agogi (Greek Upbringing; Greek: Ελληνική Αγωγή), which covers issues of national and historical interest. An organization under the same name of Elliniki Agogi runs lessons of the Ancient Greek language.

Work as an author

As an author, Georgiadis has written a historical book titled Homosexuality in Ancient Greece: the Myth Collapses in which he argues that whereas homosexuality was present in Ancient Greece as in other countries, its extent and social acceptance have been inflated.[8] However, in a 2015 TV show discussing his book, he claimed that "homosexuality did not exist in Ancient Greece".[9] He had also previously written a Guide to Ancient Greek Coins. He has also written the historical novel Theodora Phranza: or, the Fall of Constantinople. Greek journalist Tasos Kostopoulos has claimed that this book is the product of plagiarism of a 19th-century English book by John Mason Neale. Moreover, according to Kostopoulos, Georgiadis added some characters to the English original, including Bartholomew, a Jewish advisor to the Sultan Mehmet.[10] In the book, Bartholomew has the following dialogue with the Sultan: "You are a really valuable advisor. Had it not been for your advice, I do not know whether I would be here now, besieging Constantinople. You must really hate the Greeks, since you work so relentlessly for their destruction." To which the Jew answers: "I hate them! Nobody in the world will be happier than I when Constantinople will fall to your hands."[11] Kostopoulos´ claims were supported by a number of Greek journalists. Georgiadis reply was that he had never hidden he had adapted a previous work.[12][13][14][15]

Other activities

Political positions

Georgiadis' speaking style might have a nuance of the more formal katharevousa. He also advocates the use of the polytonic system for writing the Greek language; Elliniki Agogi is written in this system, which is not the prevailing practice in Greek publishing from the 1980s. Georgiadis has called for more research to investigate whether the introduction of the monotonic system was beneficial or not to the Greek culture and education. Once appointed Deputy Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping he changed the signs at his ministry to conform to the polytonic system.[17]

Georgiadis often condemns the opinions expressed in left-wing publications such as Eleftherotypia or by left-wing politicians such as those of Syriza, with both parties having exchanged sharp-tongued criticism. He also routinely condemned the policies of the two former leading Greek parties, New Democracy and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, which he viewed as two sides of the same coin. He has often used the term tholokoultoura (Greek: θολοκουλτούρα; hazy-culture) to group his left-wing ideological opponents:

The hazy-culture is a very specific thing: it is a group of people who believe that to remember our national ancestry is a factor of conservatism. They are today the best allies of globalization. What is the goal of globalization? It wants to destroy every notion of a national tradition and a national memory so as to transform the totality of the population of our planet into simple customers of multi-national corporations and into complacent subjects of the world-ruling Superpower.

— Adonis Georgiadis in Greek TV show Erevna hosted by Pavlos Tsimas, March 13, 2007

He often states that the destruction of the Greek economy and Greek society began in 1981 with the election of Andreas Papandreou as PM and the party of PASOK.

During the recent 2015-16 New Democracy leadership election, he accused Syriza of being "a second-time PASOK". He described himself as "liberal" in economic matters, while often stated that is necessary to break the "hegemony of the Left on the ideas" inside the Greek society. He stated "I want to be in Greece, what Nicolas Sarkozy is in France", while rejected the policies of Marine Le Pen and her euroscepticism as anti-European.

Another case of criticism to the Left from Georgiadis' side is about the educational system, and especially the universities system. According to him, the leftists dominate the Greek universities. He has many times expressed his will for the abolition of the "university asylum" (laws that forbid to the Greek police the entry to a Greek university), stating that it is only a tool for the anarchists to burn and destroy the Greek universities.[18]

Georgiadis is in favour of putting an end to Greece's "eternal students", people who have been enrolled at university for years without graduating. However, he came under attack from Greek media when in December 2012 it became known that he had earned his degree at the age of 31.[19]

Controversy

Georgiadis, in the past, has been accused of "troubling remarks about Jews and his public promotion of an anti-Semitic book by a pro-claimed anti-semite".[20][21] Georgiadis has countered that he sells these books like other Greek bookstores, saying that he disagrees with their content.[22] In October 2015, when he was a candidate for New Democracy, he described "my engagement with the Plevris Book of the Jews" "the biggest mistake of my political career to date," but he said he never was an anti-Semite. In January 2017, at the Holocaust memorial day, he asked for public apology that he had "coexisted and tolerated the views of people who showed disrespect" to the Greek Jews and who "supported [and] promoted his abusive book Costas Pleuri ".

Regarding the Athens Polytechnic Uprising, Georgiadis has claimed that "there was no one dead inside the Polytechnic School, not a single one! The Polytechnic Uprising is the foundational political myth of the ideological domination of the Left in Greece. They got the police report of the previous day, of the same day and of the next day and whoever died in Attica of whatever reason became a victim of snipers." [23] His statements have been criticized by the media.[24][25][26][27] Syriza has called Georgiadis's claims an "ahistorical abjection".[28]

On 16 November 2017, Georgiadis announced that he would cease working as a telemarketer. A few days earlier he came under intense criticism after it was revealed that the healing effects supposedly provided by the nanotechnological jackets that he was promoting were in fact void and based on pseudoscience. Fellow telemarketer Makis Triandafillopoulos had been previously convicted of fraud for selling exactly the same model of nano jackets following an investigation by the Greek consumer protection agency.[29][30]

On February 1, 2021, Georgiadis mocked the move of the restaurant businessmen to hand over the keys of their shops to the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who with one of the most extreme quarantines for COVID-19 in the world has banned the operation of these businesses for months. More specifically, Georgiadis told SKAI TV that any restaurant businessman can hand over the keys and his own business to him in order to operate it.[31]

Attacks against Georgiadis' bookstore

One of the bookstores of Georgiadis publishers (Ekdoseis Georgiadi), in the Exarcheia district of Athens, has been targeted and burnt 17 times by unidentified far-leftist opponents. Georgiadis has since moved this bookstore, stating that he did so to protect the anti-riot police that was tasked to protect his business. Nonetheless, a different bookstore of the same publisher was targeted on 15 February 2007, the eighth attack against bookstores of Ekdoseis Georgiadi. In November 2012, Georgiadis closed down his bookshop.[32][33]

Personal life

He is married to classical composer and reality TV celebrity Eugenia Manolidou raising a son and a daughter from her previous marriage,[34] and two own sons named Athanasios-Perseas born 2009[35] and Alkaios-Anastasios, born 2014.

References
  1. Nov 20, 2015
  2. Georgiadis CV at the Hellenic Parliament
  3. "Αδωνις Γεωργιάδης - Βιογραφικό". eklogika. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2019. Το 2006, ήταν υποψήφιος νομάρχης Αθηνών με το συνδυασμό «Υπέρ Λαού», που υποστηρίχθηκε από τον Λαϊκό Ορθόδοξο Συναγερμό (ΛΑΟΣ).
  4. Alpha TV website (17/9/2007) Archived January 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Unknown (13 February 2017). "Voridis and Georgiadis removed from the Popular Orthodox Rally (in Greek)". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  6. Adonis: from the state the pharmaceutical coverage of uninsured (Άδωνις: Από τον κρατικό προϋπολογισμό η χρηματοδότηση της φαρμακευτικής κάλυψης των ανασφαλίστων) Archived 2016-01-19 at the Wayback Machine, ygeia360, 23/4/2014
  7. "New Democracy leadership contest begins". Economist Intelligence Unit. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  8. Debunking the Myth of Homosexuality in Ancient Greece Archived February 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine A review of Adonis Georgiadis' book
  9. Thanopoulos, Vassilis (4 May 2015). "Αδ. Γεωργιάδης: "Ναι στο νομικά δικαιώματα των ομοφυλόφιλων, όχι όμως στην υιοθεσία"". antivirus. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  10. Tasos Kostopoulos (21 December 2014). "The fall of Adonis (in Greek)". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  11. Adonis Georgiadis 2004, pp. 241-2.
  12. Kostas Vaxevanis (2 July 2017). "War and Peace by Adonis Georgiadis (in Greek)". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  13. Unknown (3 July 2017). "When Georgiadis advertised his plagiarism on twitter". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  14. Dimitris Kanellopoulos (20 December 2017). "Forgery and the philological fraud of Adonis Georgiadis (in Greek)". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  15. Angelos Provolisianos (2 July 2017). "Adonis: an archaic plagiarist (in Greek)". Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  16. Board of Governors European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
  17. "Έπιασε κιόλας δουλειά ο Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης…". newsbeast. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 22 August 2019. Ο νέος υφυπουργός άλλαξε τις πινακίδες στα γραφεία που βρίσκονται στον ίδιο όροφο με το δικό του γραφείο αντικαθιστώντας το μονοτονικό σύστημα σε πολυτονικό.
  18. Ο Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης πρός Indymedia: «κύριοι του Indymedia, τρεχάτε ποδαράκια μου γιατί σας πλησιάζουμε»
  19. Adonis ... the eternal student (in Greek)
  20. "ADL urges Greece to reconsider appointment of minister 'known to have promoted anti-Semitism'". haaretz.com. 2013-06-30. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  21. Adonis Georgiadis and Plevris' book Archived April 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (IOS of Eleftherotypia, in Greek)
  22. LAOS and the Nazism of Mr. Plevris (IOS of Eleftherotypia, in Greek)
  23. Kostas Savvopoulos (2018-11-17). "Όταν ο Άδ. Γεωργιάδης γινόταν... Λαγός (video)". Η Αυγή (in Greek). Retrieved 2019-08-20.
  24. Newsroom (2017-11-17). "Όταν ο Άδωνης δήλωνε με στόμφο ότι δεν υπήρξε "ούτε ένας νεκρός στο Πολυτεχνείο" (Video)". Documento (in Greek). Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  25. Σπάνιο βίντεο του Άδωνι: Δεν υπήρξε ούτε ένας νεκρός στο Πολυτεχνείο. Reader.gr (in Greek). 2013-11-16. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  26. "Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης - Ο αρνητής του Πολυτεχνείου (Το VIDEO του Αδ. Γεωργιάδη και το πόρισμα Τσεβά)". Η Αυγή - Πρωινή Εφημερίδα της Αριστεράς. 2018-09-12.
  27. "Όταν ο Άδωνης ξεκαθάριζε -αλά Λαγός- ότι δεν υπήρχαν νεκρόι στο Πολυτεχνείο". Documento. 2018-11-15.
  28. "Αδωνις: Δεν υπήρξαν νεκροί εντός Πολυτεχνείου από το τανκ -ΣΥΡΙΖΑ: Ανιστόρητη χυδαιότητα [βίντεο]". iefimerida. 2018-11-18.
  29. "Τέλος οι τηλεπωλήσεις για τον Άδωνι Γεωργιάδη – Πήρε τη μεγάλη απόφαση ο αντιπρόεδρος της ΝΔ". Athens Voice. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  30. "Έρευνα – Τα "μαγικά" γιλέκα στην εκπομπή του Άδωνι Γεωργιάδη. (Μέρος Α')". Ellinika Hoaxes. 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  31. https://www.efsyn.gr/oikonomia/elliniki-oikonomia/279591_ta-kleidia-ston-adoni
  32. "Adonis Georgiadis closed down his bookshop (in Greek)". 17 November 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  33. "What does Adonis Georgiadis have to say about closing down his bookshop (in Greek)". 19 November 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  34. OLA 8 TV show (5 October 2007)
  35. Official brief bio of Adonis Georgiadis Archived 2009-06-02 at the Wayback Machine. Adonisgeorgiadis.gr. Retrieved on 2012-01-05.

Sources

Printed

  • Georgiadis, Adonis (2004). Theodora Phranza; or, the Fall of Constantinople. Athens: Georgiadis. ISBN 960-316-266-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Political offices
Preceded by
Andreas Lykourentzos		 Minister of Health
2013–2014		 Succeeded by
Makis Voridis
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