Gerasimos Arsenis

Gerasimos Arsenis (; 30 May 1931 – 19 April 2016) was a Greek politician who served as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament in various terms, as well as several appointments to Government Ministries in successive Governments with the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

Life Gerasimos Arsenis was born on the Greek island of Kephalonia. He went on to study law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and after obtaining his degree, he continued his post-graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He spoke three languages, namely Greek, English and French.

It was his MIT thesis, entitled "The Two - Gap Analysis: A Proposal for North - South Cooperation" that got him recruited to the UN, and it formed the basis of the negotiations for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

From 1960 until 1964, Arsenis worked at the UN as an economist, implementing and establishing UNCTAD itself. In 1964 he was appointed to the position of Director of the Research Division of the OECD Development Centre in Paris, which post he held until 1966.

In 1967, Arsenis was appointed to the position of Senior Economist of the UNCTAD and, in 1974, he was promoted to the seat of Director of UNCTAD where he served until 1980. During this period as director, Arsenis engaged in research and participated in negotiations concerning reform of the International Monetary System (IMF). From 1974 until 1980, Arsenis also served as an independent expert with UNCTAD, providing consultancy to the Ministerial Committee of Twenty on the Reform of the International Monetary System.. He died on 19 April 2016, and his funeral was held in Athens at the Church of Agios Dionysios on 21 April 2016. a position that he held until 26 July 1985. In March 1984, the Papandrou government decided to merge the Ministry of Finance with the Ministry of National Economy under Arsenis. He was appointed to serve additionally as Minister of Mercantile Marine on 5 June 1985. The Union of Greek Ship Owners (UGS) requested meetings with Prime Minister Papandrou throughout the shipping industry crisis, and looked to the government to step in and effectively manage the crisis.

Arsenis was expelled from PASOK in early 1986, due to disagreements between him and the policy and practice of Andreas Papandreou's administration. The following year, he published a book entitled Political Testimony in which he detailed his experiences in office, and accused the Prime Minister of being personally responsible for the failure of reforms.

Arsenis returned to the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in 1989, which won the national elections of 1993, and was appointed Minister of Defence until 1996. He was the Minister of Defence during the Imia crisis, which brought Greece and Turkey close to war in December 1995. During his post as the Minister, he promoted the Joint Defence Dogma with Cyprus, restructured defence procurement, and pursued policies of co-operation in defence with a number of countries in the region.

Andreas Papandreou finally resigned as Prime Minister of Greece in January 1996, owing to longstanding health problems which had kept him on life support since the previous year, and after a two-month-long hospitalization which had incapacitated him and created a serious power-vacuum in Greece. Although Arsenis announced his candidacy to replace Papandreou, and was a favourite, with Costas Simitis, to win, he actually came in third after, Akis Tsohatzopoulos. Only party executives participated in this selection vote, not the wider party membership.

Gerasimos Arsenis and Akis Tsohatzopoulos were more committed to the socialist cause of PASOK, and arguably were more populist oriented, compared with the more moderate, austerity oriented Simitris, who appointed reformists in finance and economics.

In 1996, as part of the Costas Simitis administration, Arsenis was appointed Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, Striking teachers were mostly from the left, and many were members of PASOK, and it was this, according to Maria Giannakou, that led Prime Minister Simitis to appoint a replacement minister for Arsenis in 2000.

Arsenis was a member of the Hellenic Parliament from 1986 to 1989 (one term), from 1990 to 2004 (four consecutive terms) and from 2006 to 2007 (one term).