Yiannis Varvitsiotis in his home office in 2024. [Nikos Kokkalias]
One of the stories late New Democracy minister and lawmaker Yiannis Varvitsiotis liked to recount concerned a 1976 cabinet meeting under premier Konstantinos Karamanlis. It was the first attended by the appointed Deputy Minister of Social Services, Andreas Andrianopoulos. When Karamanlis finished speaking, only Andrianopoulos raised his hand. Karamanlis ignored him and ended the meeting.
He also liked to tell of a dawn phone call from Karamanlis. As minister of commerce, he was summoned because the minister had read in Acropolis that vegetable prices had soared. From then on, Varvitsiotis started work early.
Varvitsiotis, who died at 93 on August 2, was an old-school politician and one of the last pre-dictatorship figures who had known Karamanlis. Born in Athens on August 2, 1933, he was the son of Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, an MP for the pro-monarchist People’s Party. Through him he met Karamanlis in Kamena Vourla in 1960 after returning from studies in Freiburg, Germany, and beginning work as a lawyer. He was close to prime minister Georgios Rallis.
In 1961, Karamanlis, having read his thesis, nominated him as an ERE candidate in Athens. Though reluctant, he accepted. He was elected in 1961 and in every election until 2000, becoming so close to Karamanlis that he was later regarded as the “guardian of Karamanlism” in New Democracy.
