Heads of state and government

Romania

PNL

Heads of state and government

Cyprus

Independent

Nikos Christodoulides was born on 6 December 1973 in Paphos.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Economics, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies from the City University of New York, Queens College, and a Master’s degree in Political Science from New York University. He holds a doctorate from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens.

He was a career diplomat between 1999 and 2018. During this time, he served, inter alia, as Consul General at the High Commission of the Republic of Cyprus in the United Kingdom, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Cyprus in Greece and as Spokesperson of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU at the Permanent Mission of Cyprus in Brussels.

He also served as Director of the Diplomatic Office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus (2013-2018) and as Government Spokesman (2014-2018). On 1st March 2018 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position which he held until his resignation on 11 January 2022.

Between 2007 and 2010 he was a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus in the subject of History of the Postwar World. He is the author of the books Plans for Solution of the Cyprus Problem 1948-1978 (2009), Relations between Athens and Nicosia and the Cyprus Problem, 1977-1988 (2013), and Geopolitical Realities in the Plans for Solution of the Cyprus Problem 1948-1978 (2021).

On February 12, 2023, he won the Presidential Elections with a percentage of 51.97% and assumed his duties as the 8th President of the Republic of Cyprus.

Heads of state and government

Luxembourg

CSV

Luc Frieden (born 16 September 1963) is a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer who serves as the current and 23rd Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 2023. A member of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), he held cabinet positions in the Luxembourgish government between 1998 and 2013. Frieden was president of the Luxembourgish Chamber of Commerce and Eurochambres, the business federation of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

In early 2023, he was elected to be the lead candidate of the CSV for the general elections in October. He led his party to victory, slightly increasing its vote share and maintaining its 21 seat. He was appointed on 9 October 2023, by Grand Duke Henri to form a government.

 

Heads of state and government

Sweden

MOD

Ulf Kristersson (born 29 December 1963) is the Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Moderate Party.

He has been a member of the Riksdag for Södermanland County since 2014 and previously from 1991 to 2000 for Stockholm County. He previously served as Minister for Social Security from 2010 to 2014 and Chairman of the Moderate Youth League from 1988 to 1992.

On 11 December 2014, he was appointed Shadow Finance Minister of the Moderate Party and economic policy spokesperson. On 1 September 2017, Kristersson announced he was running for the party leadership of the Moderate Party after Anna Kinberg Batra stepped down. After the 2022 Swedish general election, the coalition led by Kristersson got a majority in the Riksdag, leading to Kristersson's election as PM.

Heads of state and government

Germany

CDU

Friedrich Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1989 to 1994 and as a member of the Bundestag from 1994 until 2009, where he chaired the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2000 to 2002. He returned to the Bundestag in 2021.

Merz joined the CDU's youth wing in 1972 and is reputed to be a member of the Andean Pact, a powerful network formed by members of the CDU youth wing in 1979 during a trip to the Andes. After finishing law school in 1985, he worked as a judge and corporate lawyer before entering full-time politics in 1989 when he was elected to the European Parliament. After serving one term he was elected to the Bundestag, where he established himself as the leading financial policy expert in the CDU. 

Friedrich Merz has been elected the new Chairman of CDU in December 2021, and took official function in January 2022, following the party Congress that ratified the election.

Heads of state and government

Greece

ND

Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a Greek politician who is currently the Prime Minister of Greece and the President of New Democracy.

He has been a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Lasithi since 2004. He has been a Member of the Hellenic Parliament (MP) for Athens B since 2004, and served from 2013 to 2015 as the Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance in the Cabinet of Antonis Samaras.

On July 7, 2019, his party won the 2019 National Elections - securing 158 seats to form a majority government and Mitsotakis to be elected Prime Minister.

Heads of state and government

Portugal

PSD

Luís Filipe Montenegro Cardoso de Morais Esteves (born 16 February 1973) is a Portuguese politician and lawyer currently serving as the 14th Prime Minister of Portugal, of the Third Portuguese Republic. He is the President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and won the 2024 Portuguese legislative election, and is head of the 24th Constitutional Government.

Education and local politics

Montenegro was born in Porto and raised in Espinho in the Aveiro District. He graduated in Law from the Catholic University of Portugal (the same profession as his father and grandfather), and was president of the Social Democratic Youth in Espinho from 1994 to 1996. He served on the city's council from 1997 to 2001.

Assembly of the Republic

In 2002, 29-year-old Montenegro was elected to the Assembly of the Republic for the Aveiro District. He became the PSD parliamentary group's deputy leader to Miguel Macedo in 2010, and he received 86% of the votes to lead the group in June 2011, after PSD member Pedro Passos Coelho had been elected prime minister.

 

Heads of state and government

Finland

KOK

Petteri Orpo (born 3 November 1969) is the Prime Minister of Finland and the party leader of Kokoomus.

He is a Vice President of the European People's Party. He served as Deputy Prime Minister of Finland from June 2017 to June 2019, and was the Economic and Financial Affairs Minister of Finland from June 2016 to June 2019.

He was the Finnish Minister of Interior from 2015 until 2016. From 2014 to 2015 he was the Minister for Agriculture and Forestry in Prime Minister Alexander Stubb's cabinet.

He was elected as party leader of Kokoomus in June 2016.

Heads of state and government

Croatia

HDZ

Andrej Plenković (born 8 April 1970) is the Prime Minister of Croatia and the President of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Plenković was elected Prime Minister following the parliamentary elections which took place on 11 September 2016. Plenković has also served as Member of the European Parliament from 1 July 2013 until his election as Prime Minister of Croatia.

Heads of state and government

Austria

ÖVP

Heads of state and government

Latvia

Vienotība

Evika Siliņa is a Latvian lawyer and politician who has served as the prime minister of Latvia since 15 September 2023, becoming the second woman in that position. She previously served as Minister of Welfare in the second cabinet led by Krišjānis Kariņš.

Heads of state and government

Poland

PO

Donald Tusk was born on 22 April 1957 in Gdańsk, Poland. His father worked as a carpenter on the railway, his mother as a secretary at a hospital. When Tusk was 14 years old, his father died.

In 1976 he started studying history at Gdańsk University, where he became involved  in illegal activities against the Communist regime. At the time he cooperated inter alia with the underground Free Trade Unions and met the future Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa. In 1980 Donald Tusk founded an Independent Students' Association, NZS, which was part of the 'Solidarity' movement. He became the leader of 'Solidarity' at his place of work and a journalist on a newspaper published by 'Solidarity'.

After martial law was imposed in December 1981 by General Jaruzelski, he remained in hiding for some time. He then worked as a bread seller and later, between 1984 and 1989, he earned his living as a manual labourer specialising in work at high altitudes with the aid of climbing equipment. At the same time he was an activist in the underground Solidarity movement. After being arrested for a short time, he was set free following an amnesty for political prisoners announced by General Jaruzelski. In 1983, Donald Tusk founded an illegal monthly 'Political Review', propagating economic liberalism and rules of liberal democracy. An informal think-tank supporting Lech Wałęsa was centred around the periodical. After the collapse of communism, think-tank members known as 'Gdańsk liberals' formed a government after the first free presidential elections in Poland.

Simultaneously they founded the first pro-business and pro-Europe party in Poland, the Liberal Democratic Congress, with Donald Tusk as its leader. He was also responsible for de-monopolising and privatising the former communist state-owned press concern. In the 1990s, Donald Tusk was a Member of Parliament, inter alia deputy Speaker of the Senate. In the same years he published a series of books on the history of Gdańsk, some of which turned out to be bestsellers. In 2001, Donald Tusk was one of the initiators of the new centrist party called the Civic Platform and in 2003 he became its leader.

In 2007, after a tough campaign he defeated the ruling rightist party and became Prime Minister. He was in office for seven years, which made him the longest-serving Prime Minister in democratic Poland, and the first one to be re-elected. During his seven-year term, Poland continued to maintain economic growth, and in the time of crisis the Polish economy grew by almost 20%, a record performance in Europe. In 2014, Donald Tusk was elected to the position of President of the European Council and in 2017 re-elected for the second mandate of 2.5 years. His term ended on 30 November 2019.

In December 2019, he published a diary “Szczerze”, based on his five-year-term as President of the European Council, which became a bestseller in Poland. On December 2019, Donald Tusk assumed office of the President of the European People’s Party, and he stayed in office until May 2022. Since October 24, 2021 he is the Chairman of the Civic Platform (PO).

In December 2021, a book on contemporary politics “Wybór” was published, written by Donald Tusk and a Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum.

Heads of state and government

Bulgaria

GERB

Heads of state and government

Republic of North Macedonia

VMRO-DPMNE

Hristijan Mickoski (born on September 29, 1977) is the leader of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party since December 2017.

Heads of state and government

Bosnia and Herzegovina

HDZ BIH

Borjana Krišto (born 13 August 1961) is the 11th Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She previously served as the 8th president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2007 to 2011. She was the first woman to hold the position.

Krišto holds a degree in law from the Faculty of Law in Banja Luka.

Heads of state and government

Moldova

PAS

Maia Sandu (born 24 May 1972) is a Moldovan politician and the President of Moldova. She is the current leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), and former Prime Minister of Moldova (from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019).

Sandu was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and member of Parliament of Moldova from 2014 to 2015 and in 2019. Sandu was selected as the joint candidate of the pro-European PPDA and PAS parties for President of Moldova in the 2016 election, however she was defeated in the subsequent runoff by the pro-Russian PSRM candidate, Igor Dodon, losing the popular vote by a margin of 43%-57%. In a rematch between Dodon and Sandu in the 2020 election she came as the winner, flipping the results of the previous elections by a margin of 58%-42%. She is Moldova's first female president.

Heads of state and government

Serbia

SNS

Aleksandar Vučić (born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician and lawyer who has been the President of Serbia since 31 May 2017. He is also the leader and president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Before his tenure as his country's president Vučić served as the Prime Minister of Serbia in two terms from 2014-2016 and from 2016 until 2017, as well as Minister of Information from 1998 to 2000, Minister of Defence from 2012 to 2013, and later as First Deputy Prime Minister from 2012-2014. He is a graduate of the Belgrade Law School.

Heads of state and government

Ireland

FG

Simon Harris (born 17 October 1986) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael since 2024. A TD for the Wicklow constituency since 2011, he has served as a minister in the government of Ireland since 2016 and formerly served as a minister of state from 2014 to 2016.

Born in Greystones, County Wicklow, Harris first became involved in politics during his teenage years. He was elected to Wicklow County Council in the 2009 local elections and then elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election. He was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Finance in 2014. Following the formation of a Fine Gael minority government in May 2016, he was appointed Minister for Health. On the formation of the coalition government in June 2020, he was appointed Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Harris was elected leader of Fine Gael on 24 March 2024 and appointed Taoiseach on 9 April. At age 37, he became the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the state.

Deputy prime ministers and ministers

Italy

Forza Italia

Antonio Tajani (born 04 August 1953), is a Vice President of the EPP, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and the President of Forza Italia.

In 1994 he was elected for the first time as Member of the European Parliament and in that capacity he was member of the European Convention that drafted the European Constitution project in the early 2000s.

In 2008 he was appointed as European Commissioner for Transport and after the 2009 European elections he was re-appointed for the Industry and Entrepreneurship portfolio, taking over in 2010 and becoming also a Vice President of the Commission until he took his Parliament seat in 2014.

In January 2017 he was elected President of the European Parliament and he completed his mandate on July 3rd, 2019.

On October 21 he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation.

Deputy prime ministers and ministers

Belgium

CD&V

Vincent Van Peteghem (born 28 October 1980 in Gent) is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Belgium since October 2020.

In 2019 he was elected as Member of the Belgian Parliament. He is a member of Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V).

Deputy prime ministers and ministers

Czechia

KDU-ČSL

Marian Jurečka (born 15 March 1981) is a Czech politician who served as the Minister of Agriculture in the government of Bohuslav Sobotka from 2014 to 2017. He sits in the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party (KDU-ČSL). In January 2020, he was elected chairperson of KDU-ČSL.

Deputy prime ministers and ministers

Montenegro

BS

Ervin Ibrahimović (born 7 June 1972) is a Montenegrin politician serving as the vice president of the Parliament of Montenegro since December 2021 and the current president of the conservative Bosniak Party (BS)

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Netherlands

CDA

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Cyprus

DISY

Annita Demetriou (born 1985 in Troulloi) is the leader of the Democratic Rally (DISY) since March 2023.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Malta

PN

Bernard Grech (born 1971 in Paola) is the leader of the Nationalist Party since October 2020.

 

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Slovenia

SDS

Janez Janša (born 17 September 1958) is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2022. Since 1993, Janša has led the Slovenian Democratic Party, which has emerged as the pre-eminent Slovenian conservative party.

Janša served as Minister of Defence from 1990 to 1994, a post he had also held during the Slovenian War of Independence. Janša served as prime minister from 2004 to 2008, and again became prime minister in 2012, following an early election in December 2011. Despite his party winning a plurality of votes in the 2018 Slovenian parliamentary election, Janša was initially passed over as a prime minister, after spending years in opposition, Janša was selected as prime minister-designate in March 2020 following the resignation of prime minister Marjan Šarec. His third term as a prime minister ended on 13 May 2022.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Denmark

DKF

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Slovakia

KDH

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Spain

PP

Alberto Núñez Feijóo (born 10 September 1961) is the President of Partido Popular (PP). He has served as the President of the Regional Government of Galicia since 2009.

Formerly a civil servant, Feijóo was secretary general of Galicia's ministries of agriculture and health before moving to the same role at the national Ministry of Health, and for three years he was President of the State Society of Mail and Telegraphs. Having officially joined Partido Popular of Galicia (PPdeG), he entered the Parliament of Galicia in 2005 and succeeded Manuel Fraga as party president the following January.

In the 2009 Galician regional election, the PPdeG won a majority and Feijóo became regional president. He won further terms in 2012, 2016 and 2020. On April 2, 2022, he was elected as the president of the Partido Popular.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Estonia

Isamaa

Urmas Reinsalu (born 22 June 1975) is an Estonian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2022 to 2023 and previously from 2019 to 2021. Before that, Urmas has served as the Minister of Defence between 2012 and 2014, and Minister of Justice from 2015 to 2019.

Reinsalu is a member and current leader of the Isamaa ("Fatherland") political party.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Germany

CSU

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Georgia

UNM

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Norway

Hoyre

Erna Solberg (born 24 February 1961) is the President from Høyre and was the Prime Minister of Norway from 2013 to October 2021.

First elected to the Parliament in 1989, Solberg went to serve as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development in the Government of the Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik between 2001 and 2005.

In 2002 she became deputy leader of Høyre and two years later she succeeded Jan Petersen at the helm of the party. After the 2013 parliamentary elections, Solberg negotiated an agreement to build a new Government with the support of other centre-right parties ending eight years of socialist rule.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Armenia

HHK

Serzh Sargsyan (born 30 June 1954) was the President of Armenia between 2008 and 2018.

He has held several political positions in his country since independence. Between 1993 and 1995 he was Minister of Defence and after that, Minister of Interior until 1999, being reappointed to the Defence portfolio between 2000 and 2007.

In 2006 he was elected president of his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and the following year he became Prime Minister.

In 2008 he ran and won the presidential elections, being re-elected for a second term in 2013.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Kosovo

LDK

Lumir Abdixhiku (born 22 April 1983) is a member of Assembly of Kosovo and the president of Democratic League of Kosovo. He served as Kosovo's former Minister of Infrastructure and Environment under Kurti cabinet. Prior to that, Abdixhiku served as Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee in Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo between 2017-2019. In elections of 2019, Abdixhiku was 9th most voted politician in Kosovo and started his second term as Member of Parliament.

Leaders of the opposition and party leaders

Ukraine

Batkivschyna

Yulia Tymoshenko (born 27 November 1960) is the leader of Batkivschyna, the main opposition party of Ukraine; a former Prime Minister of her country.

Germany

CDU

Ursula von der Leyen (born 8 October 1958) is the President of the European Commission and as such, an ex officio Vice-President of the EPP.

Von der Leyen served in the federal government of Germany from 2005 to 2019 as the longest-serving member of Angela Merkel's cabinet.

She was born and raised in Brussels, where her father Ernst Albrecht was one of the first European civil servants. She was brought up bilingually in German and French, and is of German and British American descent. She moved to Hanover in 1971, when her father entered politics to become Minister President of the state of Lower Saxony in 1976. As an economics student at the London School of Economics in the late 1970s, she lived under the name Rose Ladson, the family name of her American great-grandmother from Charleston, South Carolina. After graduating as a physician from the Hanover Medical School in 1987, she specialized in women's health. In 1986 she married fellow physician Heiko von der Leyen of the noble von der Leyen family of silk merchants. As a mother of seven children, she was a housewife during parts of the 1990s and lived for four years in Stanford, California, while her husband was on faculty at Stanford University, returning to Germany in 1996.

In the late 1990s, she became involved in local politics in the Hanover region, and she served as a cabinet minister in the state government of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2005. In 2005, she joined the federal cabinet, first as Minister of Family Affairs and Youth from 2005 to 2009, then as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2009 to 2013, and finally as Minister of Defence from 2013 to 2019, the first woman to serve as German defence minister. When she left office she was the only minister to have served continuously in Angela Merkel's cabinet since Merkel became Chancellor. She has been deputy leader of the CDU since 2010.

von der Leyen is the first woman to become President of the European Commission.

Malta

PN

Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas (born 18 January 1979) is a Maltese politician who has been the president of the European Parliament since 18 January 2022. Metsola was first elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2013, representing Malta. She was elected as the first vice president of the European Parliament in November 2020.

Finland

KOK