Dimitrios Papadimoulis (born 21 March 1955) is a Greek politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as a member of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL. According to the VoteWatch.EU, he was the most influential Greek MEP in the European Parliament. In 2020, he was included at the Top 10 most influential MEPs in the European Parliament (9th place) in a list of 100 MEPs from the 705 EP and 27 Member States. The SYRIZA MEP was first in his political group (European United Left / Nordic Green Left) but also first among Greek MEPs.

Personal life

Born in 1955 in Athens. Graduated with distinction from Varvakeio Junior High School of Athens and studied with scholarship at the School of Civil Engineering of NTUA (National Technical University of Athens). He has worked as an engineer and business executive for 25 years (1980-2004). He is married to Nadia Soubasaki and they have two children.

Career

Papadimoulis was an MEP from 2004 to 2009. From 2009 to 2014 he was a member of the Greek parliament. Since 2014, he has again been an MEP. Since 1 July 2014, he has been one of the simultaneous 14 as Vice President of the European Parliament. From 2014 he is the only Greek and the only representative from the GUE-NGL political group at the Presidium of the European Parliament. According to the VoteWatch.EU, he is the most influential Greek MEP in the European Parliament. At the suggestion of Alexis Tsipras, he was unanimously elected head of the SYRIZA delegation at the European Parliament. In July 2014, he was elected vice-president of the European Parliament with a percentage of 42.1%. He was re-elected vice president in January 2017 with a percentage of 73.5%. In May 2019, he was elected first, with the highest number of votes from the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance MEPs and took over as head of the SYRIZA delegation at the European Parliament. In July 2019 he was re-elected vice president of the European Parliament with a percentage of 60.5%. In the Parliamentary Evaluation Report on the term 2014–2019, published by "Vote Watch Europe", Dimitris Papadimoulis was evaluated as the Greek MEP with the greatest influence on the European Institutions. In an earlier report by VoteWatch.EU, he was also one of the three most active MEPs in the entire European Parliament, for the period 2004–2009. On 18 January 2022, he was re-elected as vice-president of the European Parliament for the fourth consecutive time, with the support of a broad cross-party majority and with a 74.77% share of the vote, garnering 492 positive votes out of a total of 658 valid ballots. Since 2014 he was the only Greek and the only representative from the GUE-NGL political group at the Presidium of the European Parliament.