Calliope Spanou

Calliope Spanou is a Greek academic who served from 2011 to 2015 as the Greek Ombudsman. She is currently a professor of administrative science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. On 23 April 2023, she was sworn in as Minister for the Interior in a caretaker capacity, tasked with overseeing the election due to be held on 21 May.

Education Spanou studied public law and political science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and went on to study administrative science (Doctorat d'État) at the University of Picardie Jules Verne in Amiens, France. During her university studies she was awarded two scholarships: one from the M. Stassinopoulos Foundation and another from the Ministry of National Economy Technical Cooperation Programme (ΝΑΤΟ). Her doctoral dissertation was honoured by the French government with a publishing allowance. Speaking later of her time in France, she said: "You were a second-class person. The way they treated you – in their minds, we were immigrants." She was elected as Ombudsman by the Hellenic Parliament on 13 May 2011 and took office on 13 July 2011.

Personal life Spanou is married to a German economist, Jens Bastian.