First Lady of Greece

Peristera Batziana, First Lady of Greece (since Jan 26, 2015)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/26/peristera-batziana-betty-partner-alexis-tsipras-greece-syriza

Natasa Pazaiti Karamanli, Former First Lady of Greece (wife of Prime Minister)

Anastasia Pazaiti-Karamanli (Greek: Αναστασία Παζαΐτη-Καραμανλή (Anastasía Pazaïti-Karamanlí) (born 1966), is the wife of Kostas Karamanlis, former Prime Minister of Greece. She is a resident general surgeon.

She was born in Epanomi, Thessaloníki Prefecture, Greece in 1966. It was there that she completed her secondary education, and also was a member of the Greek Women’s Traditional Dancing Association (“Lykeio Ellinidon”) for many years.

In 1988, she graduated from the School of Early Childhood Education of the Faculty of Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She continued her studies and in 2002 she received a PhD, from the Faculty of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, completing her doctoral thesis entitled “Memory and Learning in Children with Perinatal Asphyxia”. A small research part of her doctoral dissertation, which in total lasted 2.5 years, was done at Tufts University, between August and December 1997, while she was in the second year studying medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2004, she graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

She organized the Behaviour Research Center at the Laboratory of Physiology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has published several papers in scientific journals and congresses minutes and made a large number of announcements in Greek and international medical congresses.

She executed her countryside doctor service in Korinthos and, since 2007, she has been a resident in general surgery at “Laikon” General Hospital in Athens.

The Greek media have dealt many times with her studies and how she acquired her doctoral diploma, as it has been argued that this has been done against meritocracy.

The relationship with the former Prime Minister of Greece Kostas Karamanlis was announced in the late 1997. The marriage took place on July 19, 1998 in Proti, Serres. In June 2003, she became the mother of twins, Alexandros and Aliki.

Natasa Pazaïti has a social and charitable contribution regarding children and regional matters, which are the center of her activities. She is the founder of the non profitable foundation “Anemi”, an initiative by the citizens with action outside the centers of big cities.

May Panou Papoulia, First Lady of Greece (wife of President)

May Panou Papoulia was born in Athens in 1938. Her mother was from the island of Lemnos and her father from Epirus. Her father, a naval architect, was a naval officer and taught at the Hellenic Naval Academy. He retired with the grade of Admiral. Her mother was involved in social work and worked voluntarily as a nurse at the Red Cross.
May Papoulia attended the Arsakeion School of Athens and then graduated from the University of Sorbonne with a degree in psychology and filmology. In 1963 she left for Germany with her husband and two daughters Fanny and Vicky. Their third daughter, Anna, was born in Cologne.

During the military dictatorship, Mrs Papoulia was at the editing board of the “Socialist Route”, a magazine published in Germany for the struggle against the Greek junta. While in Cologne, she completed her studies in psychology and worked at the psychosomatic clinic of the University of Cologne and as an academic consultant in two research programmes.

From 1987 to 2001 when she retired, Mrs Papoulia worked as a psychologist at a German social service offering support to families of Greek emigrants. She also set up educational programmes for Greek women and she was involved in a programme for mental health of foreigners in Germany.

Having lived in Cologne for forty years, she is very much attached to the Hellenic Community in Germany whom she considers an important part of the Hellenic Diaspora.Her three daughters reside in Germany. Fanny is a historian, Vicky is a social educator and Anna is a photographer.

Mrs Papoulia enjoys reading, theatre, art, music and she travels frequently.

She is fluent in English, French and German.