On Tuesday 31 August, Greek government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou announced that Vassilis Kikilias will take over the Ministry of Tourism in place of Harry Theoharis, who was left out of the government.
From the first day of the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis until today, Vassilis Kikilias has held the position of Minister of Health. The Ministerial Council, which was to meet today at 11:00 via teleconference, was postponed and will meet on Thursday under the new composition.
Who is Greece’s new Minister of Tourism
Vassilis Kikilias was born in Athens in 1974. He studied at the Leontion High School and then at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, from which he graduated in 2002. He pursued further studies at the Department of Health Policy and Management of the National School of Public Health, where he received his Master’s degree in 2008. In 2011 he was awarded a doctorate from the Medical School of the University of Athens.
Sports career
From 1990 to 2004 he played professional basketball. He is 6 feet tall and played mainly as a small forward. He has played for Panionios, Ionikos, AEK Athens, Apollon Patras, as well as for the National Basketball Team. With the National Children’s team he became European runner-up in 1991. He made 6 appearances with the men’s National Team, scoring 76 points.
Political career
He was elected as an Athens city councillor in 2006. In 2007 he became president of the Athens Youth and Sports Organization (ONA), a position he held until 2011. In 2007 he was elected member of the Political Committee of New Democracy (ND; Greek: Νέα Δημοκρατία, romanized: Néa Dimokratía), of which he has been a member ever since.
In the national elections of 2009, he ran as a parliamentary candidate for Athens A’ constituency, but was not elected. In the 2010 local elections he was a candidate for regional governor in the Region of Attica, taking second place with 47.50% of the votes, and was head of the major opposition in the Region of Attica until 2010.
He was elected MP in the Athens A’ constituency in the national elections of May and June 2012. On 9 June 2014, following a decision by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, he took office as Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection.
He was re-elected MP for Athens A constituency in the national elections held in January and September 2015. As of November 2016, he took over the duties of New Democracy’s press spokesman until October 2017, when he was succeeded by Maria Spyraki and became Minister of National Defence of New Democracy, succeeding Adonis Georgiades.
In the 2019 elections he was re-elected MP and on 9 July 2019 he was appointed Minister of Health in Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ Cabinet.
