Demetris Christofias

Demetris Christofias
Demetris Christofias
Δημήτρης Χριστόφιας
6th President of Cyprus
	In office; 28 February 2008 – 28 February 2013
Preceded by	Tassos Papadopoulos
Succeeded by	Nicos Anastasiades
9th President of the House of Representatives
	In office; 7 June 2001 – 28 February 2008
Preceded by	Spyros Kyprianou
Succeeded by	Marios Garoyian
4th General Secretary of the ; Progressive Party of Working People
	In office; 22 April 1988 – 21 February 2009
Preceded by	Ezekias Papaioannou
Succeeded by	Andros Kyprianou
Personal details
Born	29 August 1946; Kato Dikomo, British Cyprus
Died	21 June 2019 (aged 72); Nicosia, Cyprus
Political party	Progressive Party of Working People
Spouse(s)	Elsie Chiratou
Children	Marianna; Christina; Christos
Alma mater	Russian Academy of Sciences
Signature

Demetris Christofias, also spelled Dimitris Christofias (Greek: Δημήτρης Χριστόφιας [ðiˈmitɾis xɾiˈstofças]; 29 August 1946 – 21 June 2019), was a Cypriot politician. He was the sixth President of Cyprus from 2008 to 2013. Christofias was the General Secretary of AKEL, the communist party of Cyprus, and was the European Union's and Cyprus' first, and so far only, communist head of state.

He won the 2008 Cypriot presidential elections in the second round of voting. Throughout the election campaign, he promised to restart talks with Turkish Cypriots in order to find an answer to the Cyprus dispute and reunify the island. He has also supported the closure of the British military bases on Cyprus.^[1]

On 20 May 2019, Christofias was hospitalized in Nicosia due to an acute respiratory infection and was under critical condition.^[2] He died a month later on 21 June 2019 from respiratory failure at the age of 72.^[3]