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The pressures of the popular right wing of the ruling party may be intensifying, but the Mitsotaki liberal wing is coming back, having even shaken off the dust from the OPEKEPE case. June was definitely a very good month for him Tasso Hatzivasiliou. His involvement in the subsidy issue was put on the record. He returned vindicated immediately to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a role tailored to his interests and in fact after a special amendment was adopted to establish the position of permanent minister of state. At the same time, he knows that the next battle of the cross will probably be a piece of cake. His position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ensured him the necessary visibility, while the sacred totem of the prefecture of Serres, the Karamanlis family, will not, for the first time, exert its irresistible influence in the arena of competition for the cross.
Friends and rivals within the party agree that he is no accident regaining his position in government. He is hardworking, ambitious and formal with his work, he has cultivated an important network of acquaintances in Europe. At the same time, he is always the soul of the group, with humor, a great talent for impersonations and without a heavy ideological burden, as a result of which he has not made internal party enemies – at least not outside the county where he is in politics. Of course, this is one of his negative elements for some, since, as they say, he still has an “official relationship” with politics, he is a “scribbler”. He tells colleagues that when, in difficult times, “the lentil patriots” won TV time, he did not change his stance and said what he believed. It does not adapt to what the voters want to hear from Sidirokastro or Alistrati Serres.
The “chemistry” with the prime minister
He was born in Provatas, a small settlement in the prefecture of Serres, and grew up in Serres. Both his parents worked as teachers, his mother in a special education school. He is the first of his family to be involved in politics. He studied at the Turkish Studies Department of the University of Cyprus and continued his studies in International Politics and Southeast European issues at the University of Athens, while in 2020 he was awarded a PhD in Political Science and History at Panteion University. His involvement in politics began almost immediately after his undergraduate studies, as a scientific associate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the ministry of Doras Bakoyannis and then as a scientific associate at the Parliament. In the 2012 elections, he was a candidate in Serres with the Democratic Alliance, the party founded by Mrs. Bakoyannis. His father had seen his son’s political ambitions positively from the start. His mother panicked, but in the end he not only “danced”, but has evolved into one of the main people supporting his course.
He met Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis through his collaboration with Dora Bakoyannis in 2010. When Mitsotakis became the leader of New Democracy, they discussed the possibility of joining politics. After all, the chemistry with the prime minister was excellent, their collaboration quickly became close and he immediately assumed the position of secretary of international relations in New Democracy. In the 2019 election campaign, together with Angelos Syrigos and Dimitris Kairides, he was the main trio representing the party on foreign policy issues. When New Democracy won the elections, Mr. Hatzivasileiou was now a member of the core group of collaborators that accompanied the prime minister to the Summits in Brussels and to the meetings of the European People’s Party, thus acquiring himself a large network of European contacts.
In January 2025, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for Economic Diplomacy and External Affairs, but resigned a few months later, due to his name being involved in a case file for OPEKEPE. With the latest government changes, in which Kyriakos Mitsotakis proceeded to the ministerial structure, he returns for the third time to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Minister, responsible for European Affairs, with the aim of preparing the country for the Greek presidency of the EU. starting in June 2027. Undersecretary Alexandra Papadopoulou will remain as undersecretary, with the government passing an overnight amendment to initiate the creation of a permanent caretaker undersecretary position to accommodate both in the ministry. Government officials express concerns about whether all of them, the four now deputy ministers, will be able to coexist without friction.
Difficult terrain
The election in the district of Serres is a difficult track for a politician from the new generation who wants to maintain a centrist profile. The prefecture is one of the poorest in Greece, the people particularly conservative. The mentality of the ruffian has hatched in the shell of preferential treatment that the great political family has ensured for decades. One encounters voter-agents trained in clientelism, capable of triggering an “auction” of bribes among politicians.
“He was always very close to the prime minister, he had promised him, he has done a lot of work in international relations, in the party councils,” says a government official about his return to the Foreign Ministry.
Tasos Hatzivasileiou is considered the Mitsotaki counterweight in the cradle of the Karamanlids. Thus, even though he did not have the support of the “patriarchs”, who are an icon in the homes of the locals, he had achieved an impressive performance in the crusade in the 2023 elections, surpassing Fotini Arabatzi and climbing to second place. He comes first in the preference in the city of Serres, while he lags behind in the villages.
From his first pre-election speech, he brought the “American-style” to the prefecture of Serres, abandoning the traditional podium, moving freely on stage. The place was filled with the ladies who arrived early to get a good seat and show off the local political elite, who, seeing the strange setup, were confused. They started calling him, “Taso, is there going to be a catwalk here? Will models come out?’
It was particularly difficult to manage voters during the coronavirus, with Serres Prefecture having one of the highest levels of anti-vaccinators and MPs facing complaints and reactions to both the lockdown and mandatory vaccination. Mr. Hatzivasiliou together with Kostas Ah. Karamanlis were also the only members of Parliament from Serres who voted in favor of the government’s marriage equality bill, which also met with many reactions both from the conservative local community and from the Church.
Although winning over the audience is in many cases like being forced to play an opposite role, he believes that he manages to be himself. He had launched a pioneering free education program for young farmers in the prefecture. No one was participating. His office was calling the producers to get them to sign up. Some recent progress has also helped: Construction has begun on the swimming pool and will be completed in early ’27, while about 10 million has been committed from the Recovery Fund to upgrade the ski resort, which will be delivered by the end of the month.
Officials of the government comment that the mini-government reshuffle was not only done to replace the now-Secretary of the ND, Konstantinos Kyranakis, but also to bring Tasos back. One reason is symbolic, as the case file involving him in the OPEKEPE case was filed. The other is substantial, the prime minister has great confidence in Hatzivasiliou. “He was always very close to the prime minister, he had promised him, he has done a lot of work in international relations, in the party councils,” says a government official.
The agenda of the presidency
His name was also discussed for the position of government representative, in case Pavlos Marinakis was eventually moved. However, if he were to be elected, he would have to resign before the elections and another person would have to be looked for again. He considers that the position for which he was chosen is “tailored” for him, as he is returning to a familiar place to take on a portfolio that is exactly his object, while his relationship with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis is also at an excellent level. The Greek presidency of the EU has a very heavy agenda, as during that period the negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework, i.e. the Commission’s budget for the period 2028-2034, are expected to be concluded, as well as developments regarding the enlargement of the EU.
Mr. Hatzivasileiou had resigned last June, as his name was included in dialogues in the file on OPEKEPE that had been sent to the Parliament by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, in order to lift the immunity of Lefteris Avgenakis and Maki Voridis. The conversations were also contained in the case file concerning him and 12 other sitting MPs of the ruling party in April. At the beginning of June, the Athens Court of First Instance concluded that there are no indications of moral complicity in breach of duty. The case file had been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office of First Instance for a preliminary examination, as the specific offense was deemed not to fall within the competence of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Appellate Office upheld the filing.
He expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the case that troubled him for about a year was closed, as well as the fact that the authorities moved and concluded quickly, otherwise the case would have been statute-barred and an unfair stigma would have been left against him. However, he does not consider that his voters in Serres saw him differently after his involvement. On Easter day, on his name day – that is, a few days after the case file had reached the Parliament – his political office had opened, with hundreds of citizens and local political actors queuing up to wish him well.
In the next crusade, in the absence of Karamanlis, his main opponent will be Fotini Arabatzi, who everyone believes will be supported by the traditional political system of Serres. He himself is preparing for the elections with a unifying and not confrontational approach. Besides, once the chain of “hereditary” power is broken, the old electoral customs may be abandoned. Unless the new “players” do so well because they adapt to them.
