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The tragedy does not allow Dora Bakoyanni to sit back as a devastated widow. Entering the political scene is actually necessary. Her childhood experiences and the fact that she grew older next to Mitzotakis, make her the master of political realism and all of a sudden she was more than ready to undertake the suddenly appeared future. Dora Bakoyanni keeps and protects her family name with everything. After her husband’s death she applies for a parliament member from Evritania region – she wants to take the position, which not long before belonged to her husband. She starts her political career back then and with the votes of the citizens from Evritania, Dora Bakoyanni enters the Greek parliament, where she spends three mandates as a parliament representative of the region. Even though she no longer a representative of Evritania, Dora continues to keep her tight connection with the region, to such extent that she is ready to leave it as an inheritance to her son Kostas when his time comes. 

In her father’s governments (1990-93) Dora Bakoyanni takes positions as a deputy minister and minister of culture and she built her leader profile very quickly. During the 1996 elections she changes the election region and applies in Athens, where the citizen’s vote raises her to first place. During that time, her father withdrawals from politics and she gets married for the second time – for Izidoros Kouvelos. Her political career runs like the wind – during 2002 Bakoyanni becomes the first women in Athens history to become a mayor of the city with the great vote percentage of 60.6%. This percentage is the biggest received by a mayor in Athens. 

For the Mitzotakis family, creating and using a mechanism is in the basis of politics. For years there has been a joke about Dora’s father Kostas Mitzotakis, which says that he is the godfather of thousands of children on Crete, the island where his family comes from. This is a characteristic example about the temperament and habits of a long gone era but the tight family contacts and relationships with all social groups within the Greek community continue to be cultivated by all family members because they are a necessary premise for achieving goals. In Crete, even Mitzotakis’ political opponents admit that he has never left anyone close to him “hanging.” Everyone in his surrounding gets settled in accordance to what they offer and give. True to the family tradition, Dora Bakoyanni created a wide circle of people around her, which starts to form from the time she was Athens mayor. 

“I have never felt that my gender makes me different when it comes to my career. And it is not supposed to,” says Dora Bakoyanni for www.worldmayor.com. The website ranked her as the best mayor in the world for 2005. In the website, more than 87 000 people from all around the world vote for their favorite mayor. Dora Bakoyanni wins the title “best mayor in the world” and she was not supported only by Greeks but also by people who voted from countries in Europe, North America, and Australia. Back then the Athens mayor receives many positive comments by 550 mayors from around the world and during the next year, Forbes magazine includes her in the list of 100 most powerful women in the world for 2006. 

Dora Bakoyanni’s success as an Athens mayor during the hosting of the Olympic Games in 2004 and her anti-terrorism fight got the Greek politics addicted to her. “The Olympic Games gave Athens the opportunity to become a modern and easy city for its citizens and visitor.” After the successful execution of Dora’s project to renovate the facades of 3000 buildings in Athens, the EU showed interest to start more similar projects. 

“I am proud that during September 2005 the project “Façade” was presented in the Department of government administration John Kennedy in Harvard University as an example for a program focused in the cooperation between the state and private sectors.” Dora Bakoyanni has been taking care of Athens’ vision ever since she was a Minister of Culture in 1993, when she starts an ambitious plan to change the life of all citizens in the city. This project also changes the image of the city – Bakoyanni embarked in realizing an ambitious project for uniting archeological sites, which in the past was planned by Melina Merkouri and Andonis Tritzis. 

Dora Bakoyanni as a Foreign Affairs Minister of Greece  

In 2006, Dora Bakoyanni becomes Foreign Minister of Greece. In an administration, which is constantly shaken by scandals – Vodafone’s phone tapping, the Olympic Games scandal and Siemens, corrupt high ranked people connected with the real-estate scandal in Vatopedi monastery, Dora Bakoyanni guards her name with dignity. She is one of the most popular ministers in Kostas Karamanlis’ administration and of course, she managed to keep her position even after the reconstruction of the administration. 

“Greek foreign policy is extroverted and determined. Through it we guarantee our national interests,” says Dora Bakoyanni. One of her undisputable successes is that her and her team sends humanitarian help when needed in a lighting speed and adequately. A characteristic case was the crisis in Lebanon in 2006. Greece was the first country to send humanitarian help to the region of about ?7.5 million. During the army riots, Greece gave ?2.5 million, released 2 861 citizens from 54 nationalities and acted as a center through which other European countries sent their help to Lebanon.