Sofia Sakorafa

Sofia Sakorafa (Greek: Σοφία Σακοράφα, born 29 April 1957) is a Palestinian-Greek politician and former javelin thrower. She was formerly a Member of the European Parliament for Greece as member of the political party MeRA25, having formerly sat for Syriza and before that served, from June 2012 to July 2014, as a Syriza Member of the Hellenic Parliament. She now serves as a deputy speaker in the Hellenic Parliament for the MeRA25 party.[1]

Sofia Sakorafa
Σοφία Σακοράφα
Sakorafa, 2016
Deputy Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament
Assumed office
18 July 2019
Serving with Nikitas Kaklamanis, Haralambos Athanasiou, Athanasios Bouras, Dimitris Vitsas, Odysseas Konstantinopoulos, Giorgos Lambroulis, and Apostolos Avdelas
SpeakerKonstantinos Tasoulas
Member of the Hellenic Parliament
Assumed office
8 July 2019
ConstituencyAthens B3
In office
17 June 2012 – 5 May 2014
Succeeded byFotini Kouvela
ConstituencyAthens B
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1 July 2014 – 2 July 2019
ConstituencyGreece
Personal details
Born (1957-04-29) 29 April 1957
Trikala, Thessaly, Kingdom of Greece
Citizenship
NationalityGreek
Political party
Alma materAristotle University of Thessaloniki
OccupationPolitician
Sports career
CountryGreece
SportWomen's Javelin
Medal record
Women's Javelin
Representing  Greece
European Championships
1982 AthensJavelin
Mediterranean Games
1979 SplitJavelin
1987 LatakiaJavelin

Education

Sakorafa graduated in physical education from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.[2]

Athletics

She started competing in athletics at age fifteen as a member of Trikala Gymnastic Club. In total, Sakorafa – often pushed by her antagonism with Anna Verouli – broke the Greek record for the javelin seventeen times. She competed in the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics.

Sakorafa broke the world record on 26 September 1982 with a throw of 74.20 metres. That mark stood as a Greek record until the new javelin was introduced in 1999. She won the bronze medal at the 1982 European Championships in Athletics in Athens.

2004 Olympics

Sakorafa stirred controversy in 2004 when she became a Palestinian citizen and applied a few months before the Olympic Games for a berth on the Palestinian Olympic team at the age of 47. She made her debut representing Palestine in Chania, Crete, on 28 June 2004 - her performance was 47.23 metres. Despite the fact that her gesture to participate as a Palestinian was symbolic, the IAAF ruled her ineligible for the 2004 Summer Olympics.[3]

Professional career

Sakorafa worked in as a secondary teacher of physical education before working as a freelance. From 1994 to 1996, she served as an adviser to the sports minister and as Chairman of the Commission for Sport and Woman.[2]

Political career

She has served on the City Councils of Athens, from 1994 to 1998, and Maroussi, from 1998 to 2006. She was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament under the banner of PASOK three times (in the elections of 2000, 2007 and 2009).[2] She failed to win a seat in parliament following the 2004 elections.

On 6 May 2010 she refused to vote in favour of the austerity measures and the loan agreement between the Greek government and the IMF/EU. As a result, she was expelled from PASOK and served as an independent member of the parliament until 2012.[2]

She participated in the 2012 legislative elections as a member of Syriza and was elected in Athens B. In the Shadow Cabinet of Alexis Tsipras, she had responsibility for the interior.[2] She resigned from the Hellenic Parliament in May 2014 in order to contest the European Parliament election.

In the 2014 European Parliament elections, she was elected as a Member of European Parliament for Greece, representing Syriza. She is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Petitions and is a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Since the 16 October 2014, she has been the chair of the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America, having previously been a member. She is therefore also a member of the Conference of Delegation Chairs.[4]

On 28 September 2015, Sakorafa left Syriza and currently sits as an Independent within the GUE/NGL grouping.[4] She resigned from Syriza over disagreements with the leadership over the introduction of further austerity measures in Greece. She said: "It's clear that I cannot support any government nor any policies that involve measures that harm the people."[5]

In December 2018 Sofia Sakorafa joined the Greek party MeRA25.[6] On the 26th of May 2019, she narrowly lost reelection as a member of the European Parliament as member of MeRA25.[7]

References
  1. "Conservador Tasulas, nuevo presidente del Parlamento griego". m.dw.com. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  2. "Sofia SAKORAFA". Syriza. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  3. "Olympics: IOC Blocks Greek Javelin Champion's Olympic Comeback for Palestine", Agence France-Presse, 11 August 2004
  4. "Sofia Sakorafa - History of parliamentary service". European Parliament. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  5. "SYRIZA MEP Sofia Sakorafa announces independence". Kathimerini. 11 September 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  6. https://www.efsyn.gr/politiki/antipoliteysi/176420_sto-mera25-i-sofia-sakorafa
  7. "ΜέΡΑ25 | Ευρωεκλογές – Μάιος 2019". ekloges.ypes.gr. Retrieved 2019-05-28.

This article incorporates text from the article Sofia_Sakorafa on Phantis.com, which is licensed under the GFDL ().

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Antoaneta Todorova		 Women's Javelin Best Year Performance
1982		 Succeeded by
Tiina Lillak
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