Galery

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The vast majority of Greek deputies are quite wealthy as shown by their asset declarations for 2011, in which they themselves described their assets. A smaller part of them could be defined as rich whereas some had no property at all.

The wealthiest among the leaders of political parties was Evangelos Venizelos followed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. It turns out that for another consecutive year the already former secretary of the Greek Communist Party, Aleka Papariga, was the poorest. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras declared insignificant property as well.

In particular, Antonis Samaras declared an annual family income of €180,710, his parliamentary allowance being the source of €99,854 thereof. Together with his wife, he owned 13 properties located in the Athens suburb of Kifissia, on the island of Evia and in the region of Pilos in the Peloponnese. His wife Georgia Samara was the co-owner of another 3 properties and the owner of two flats and one commercial site in Athens and Nafplio. The bank deposits of Antonis Samaras amounted to €266,304, which he had transferred to Greece from a Belgian bank in 2011 and which he had obtained while he was a Member of the European Parliament. His wife had deposits amounting to €31,371.23 and £983.30. The Greek Prime Minister was also the owner of 3,500 shares of the company Anen Lines and his wife of 300 shares of the company Smartstore.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras declared income from parliamentary allowance to the amount of €72,330 as well as €1,740 from other sources. He was also the owner of a 114 square metre flat in Athens, which his parents had assigned to him in 1996. His deposits in two Greek banks were more than modest, €100.75, whereas they had amounted to €11,000 a year earlier. His asset declaration for 2011 does not contain data on his motorcycle with an engine capacity of 650 cc, which he had declared a year earlier.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos was the wealthiest among the political leaders. In 2011, his income from parliamentary allowance amounted to €94,309 and to zero from other sources. The income of his wife amounted to €55,607. He had money in 27 bank accounts, the holders of the majority of them being his wife and daughter. The amounts stated in the declaration are €1,633,054 (€2,326,777 in 2010), £84,444 (£43,900 in 2010), $129,000 ($1,729 in 2010). The property status of his family remained unchanged compared with the declaration of 2010. Evangelos Venizelos owned 11 properties in Thessaloniki, Athens, Halkidiki and his wife Lila Bakatselou 16 properties in Thessaloniki and Karditsa. He did not hold shares whereas his wife had purchased bonds of the European bank worth €104,009. Each of them had a car as well.

The leader of Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis, declared income from parliamentary allowance to the amount of €88,735 and €428 from other sources; his wife declared €15,063. They were the owners of 15 properties, most of which were in the name of his wife Fotini.

She was also the owner of 5,000 shares of Capital AXE, which she had bought against €17,608. They had two joint bank accounts whose holders were their two daughters as well. The amounts in them were €43,228 and €76,301. Fotis Kouvelis was the owner of two cars and his wife of one.

The leader of Independent Greeks, Panos Kamenos, declared a total family income to the amount of €171,667, € 86,088 of which being from his parliamentary allowance. The family owned 8 properties, namely, 2 in the name of Panos Kamenos and 6 in his wife’s name. He was also the owner of 55,000 shares in the company of his father Elias Kamenos and his bank deposits amounted to €1,581.5, $16.99 and £0.95. Panos Kamenos owned three cars and an 8.5-metre long yacht.

The wife of the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, Eleni Zaroulia, had a higher income than he had had in 2011 when they were not yet members of parliament. In particular, his income amounted to €23,932 and hers to €33,698. Michaloliakos owned 25% of 4 commercial sites in Athens and 25% of 1 property with a total area of ​​4,500 square metres in the city of Githio, Laconia district. His wife had 4 commercial sites in Athens and one flat in the suburb of Maroussi.

Zaroulia declared her share in a hotel in the centre of Athens. The couple did not hold any shares. Nikos Michaloliakos had in his bank account €390 (€3,500 euro in 2010) and his wife €26,000 (€3,240 euro in 2010). The only car owned by the family belonged to Eleni Zaroulia, who is the co-owner of a service-rendering firm.

The former chief secretary of the Greek Communist Party Aleka Papariga declared an income of €70,612.71 from parliamentary allowance and €42,305.92 from other sources. She was the owner of a flat of 90 square metres and her bank deposits amounted to just €0.32.

Georgia Martinou from New Democracy is among the wealthiest ordinary deputies as her income in the period from 2009 to 2011 amounted to €1,170,000, she declared 156 properties and bank deposits of over half a million euro. It should be noted that she is a member of the ship owning Martinos family.

Next in the ranking is Dora Bakogiannis who along with her husband Isidoros Kouvelos had bank deposits amounting to approximately €1.2 million and $3.9 million, a large number of shares and 26 properties, two of which in France.

A former deputy, also from New Democracy, is the third in the ranking. Georgios Vaionas declared bank deposits amounting to $1.15 million and €140,000.

Anna Dallara is not a member of this parliament either but in 2011, when she was a deputy minister in the government of George Papandreou, she declared 48 properties, shares of over €1.5 million and a 10-metre yacht.

At the same time, it seems that two current deputies of SYRIZA were on the verge of poverty in 2011. Eugenia Vamvaka submitted a zero asset declaration and Panagiota Dritseli declared zero income and bank deposits of €10,000.

At the same time, an interesting fact is the change in the asset declarations of

- Former Prime Minister George Papandreou, who declared an increase of €180,000 in one year. His associates state that the money belonged to his wife who had obtained it from her mother.

- Former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis who lost €160,000 due to the haircut of Greece’s debt.

- Current Deputy Minister of Finance Notis Mitarakis who, against €1,319,023.92, had bought a property with a total area of 139 square metres in London in 2010.

Left-wingers with "right-winged" pockets

The most interesting asset declaration which is raising a lot of questions belongs to SYRIZA deputy Dimitris Tsoukalas whose bank deposits amounted to €1,071,000. According to him, he had received €650,000 and €350,000 as a lump sum benefit upon retirement. The fuss about the record high amount has made him issue a message stating that, in 2010, upon retirement from the Dutch bank ABN AMRO where he had worked for 35 years, he had received one million euro on the basis of an insurance contract entered into by the Bank for all its employees. The message has however failed to explain all the details. It is worth noting that Tsoukalas is a long-time trade unionist and former chairman of the federation of unions of bank employees in Greece.

His fellow party member Nadia Valavani declared deposits of £363,879 and €452,930. George Statakis, who is responsible for economic affairs in SYRIZA, declared deposits to the amount of €300,000 and $200,000, and investments in bonds to the amount of €350,000. He and his colleague Euklidis Tsakalotos (also from SYRIZA) invested in foreign hedge funds, such as BlackRock Global Funds, JP Morgan and others.