Filippos Petsalnikos

Filippos Petsalnikos (Φίλιππος Πετσάλνικος; 1 December 1950 – 13 March 2020) was a Greek politician of the Movement of Democratic Socialists. From 2009 to 2012, he served as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament. Before, he was a Member of the Hellenic Parliament from 1985 to 2012.

Life
Born in Mavrochori, Kastoria, Petsalnikos studied law in Greece and Germany.

Political career
In 1985, he was elected for the first time as an MP for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).

He served as the Minister for Macedonia-Thrace between 22 October 1996 and 30 October 1998, the Minister of Public Order between 30 October 1998 and 19 February 1999. Petsalnikos resigned in the aftermath of the Abdullah Öcalan's capture. Later he acted as the Minister of Justice between 24 October 2001 and 10 March 2004. He was elected to the position of Speaker on 15 October 2009 by 168 of the Parliament's 300 MPs.

On 3 January 2015, it was announced that Petsalnikos would join former prime minister Papandreou in leaving PASOK to found the new Movement of Democratic Socialists.

Personal life
He was married and had three children. Petsalnikos spoke Greek, English and German. His wife is an attorney and supports (2005) DKIZ, which is (2011) a selfhelp-organisation run by and for German speaking women in Greece.