Kostas Karamanlis

Konstantinos Alexandrou Karamanlis, known as Kostas Karamanlis (English: Constantine Alexander Karamanlis, Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αλεξάνδρου (Κώστας) Καραμανλής, ; born 14 September 1956) is a former Prime Minister of Greece and former president of the right-conservative New Democracy party, founded by his uncle Konstantinos Karamanlis. He served as Prime Minister for two consecutive terms, winning the 7 March 2004 parliamentary elections and the 16 September 2007 parliamentary elections. However, he asked for mid-term general elections to be held on 4 October 2009. The main reason for the mid-term election was the narrow majority his party enjoyed in Parliament that could not guarantee a stable government needed to handle the economic crisis and its repercussions. On 5 October 2009, Karamanlis conceded defeat in the Greek legislative election and resigned as president of the New Democracy party after 12 years as its leader, after an election victory for the opposition PASOK.