Stelios Papathemelis

Stelios Papathemelis is a Greek politician and lawyer.

He was born in Thessaloniki on January, 1938. He studied Law in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and was elected an MP with EK-ND in the elections of 1974 and with EDIK in 1977. Afterwards, he joined PASOK and was appointed Minister several times during the '80s. During his term as Minister of Public Order, he was widely ridiculed for a 2 AM curfew he imposed on clubs and bars. After becoming the butt of jokes by comedians for some time, jokes which invariably took his diminutive stature into account, the curfew proved as short-lived as his ministerial term.

He later left PASOK and was elected as an independent MP on the New Democracy list for Thessaloniki in the 2004 elections.

Though he started his political career in a liberal party and was later in a socialdemocratic one, he is now considered a left-wing nationalist and "traditional centrist patriot". [ [http://www.e-grammes.gr/article.php?id=2058 Makis Voridis, The Idea of Fatherland Beyond Right and Left, 5 April 2006] ] He has a privileged relationship with the Church of Greece. [ [http://www.ecclesia.gr/greek/holysynod/holysynod.asp?id=698&what_sub=d_typou Ιερα Συνοδοσ Τησ Εκκλησιασ Τησ Ελλαδοσ ] ]

On March, 2007 he announced the foundation of a new political party, Democratic Revival. In the general elections of September 2007, Democratic Revival performed dismally, tallying 0.8 % of the national vote and failed to get parliamentary representation.

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