Andreas Georgiou Papandreou (born onFebruary 5,1919 at Chios, died on 23 June 1996 in Ekali) was a Greek politician. During the Greek military coup in 1967, he was arrested and detained. Of 21 October 1981 to the 2nd July 1989 and of 13 October 1993 to 22 January 1996, he was Prime Minister of Greece.
Papandreou was the son of the leading Greek liberal politician and founder of the Democratic Centre Georgios Papandreou and born of Sofia Mineyko. He attended the 1937 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he studied law and in 1938 became involved in Trotskyist groups. Papandreou was arrested in 1939 by the dictatorship established in 1936 by Ioannis Metaxas, imprisoned and tortured, but later released and was able to leave the country.
In 1942, Papandreou enrolled at Harvard University, where he graduated with a doctorate in economics. Initially, he remained at Harvard as a lecturer associate professor until 1947. In 1944, he acquired American citizenship and served in the U.S.Navy. He was later a professor at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, the University of California, Berkeley (where he was the Dean of the Faculty of Economics), Stockholm University and York University in Toronto, Canada.
In 1951 he married the American Margaret Chant, and of the marriage there are three sons and a daughter.
Papandreou was an intensely polarizing personality. He was a powerful orator and was admired by the working class and many people in rural Greece, who were attracted by his populist attacks on the rich, and his romantic Greek nationalism.
His opponents, the Conservatives, had little recognition for him, as they placed him under a veil of corruption and demagoguery,saying he was ruining the reputation of Greece and the economy and the relations with the neigbours.
His successor Konstantinos Simitis followed a different strategy,more marked by substantive reforms. He called Giorgos Papandreou, the son of Andreas Papandreou, foreign minister, who followed the line of Simitis, but with closer cooperation with Turkey, also realized their own goals. Simitis resigned in February 2004 and Giorgos Papandreou was elected leader of PASOK. He tried with the Sloagan Andrea Zeiser! Esy mas odhigeis ”(“Andreas, you live still! You lead us! “) and former political supporters of his father to mobilize, but was defeated by New Democracy Kostas Karamanlis by its chairman. Only in the elections in October 2009, the same constellation ended with a clear victory of PASOK.
