Dimitris Tsovolas

Dimitris Tsovolas (Template:Langx; 4 September 1942 – 25 February 2022) was a Greek politician who served as Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989.

Early life and education

Tsovolas was born at Melissourgoi, a village outside Arta, Epirus in 1942.Template:Citation needed He went on to study law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He worked as a lawyer in Arta.Template:Citation needed

Political career

Tsovolas later began his career in politics as a member of PASOK. He was first elected member of the Parliament representing Arta in 1977. He was reelected in 1981 and 1985. He was then elected as an MP for northern Athens.<ref name=bio />

Tsovolas served in the Ministry of Finance in Andreas Papandreou's government from 1981 to 1989, serving as a deputy minister from 1981 to 1985, and as the full Minister of Finance from 1985 to 1989.<ref name=bio />

As the Koskotas scandal was unraveling, Andreas Papandreou's blatant patronage reached the point of giving in one of his rallies a public command to Tsovolas, who was Minister of Finance, to "give it all [to them]" (Template:Langx) and "Tsovolas, empty the coffers [of the state]," and the crowd chanted these back. Papandreou later on said that he was only joking, but this moment characterized the era and made Tsovala's name infamous.

In 1989 he was tried for the so-called Koskotas scandal and was sentenced to 2 years in prison and 3 years lack of his political rights.

In October 1995 he left PASOK and on 20 December that year he founded the Democratic Social Movement.<ref name=bio />

Personal life and death

Tsovolas was married and had two children.<ref name=bio>Template:Cite web</ref> He died on 25 February 2022, at the age of 79.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>