Prime minister during one of the toughest periods in modern Greek history, Antonis Samaras' penchant for risky politics could cost him his job in Sunday's election.
The Harvard-educated 63-year-old says salvation is in sight for Greece after six painful years of recession.
But to reap the rewards, Samaras warns Greeks must shut their ears to the far-left Syriza party's promises to end austerity.
"Today we decide if are going forward or if we are going towards the unknown," Samaras said as he voted in his home town of Pylos in the Peloponnese.
But the outgoing premier finds himself in a situation of his own making after his latest political gamble backfired.
In a bold move, he pushed forward a presidential election by two months, hoping to gain time to complete a EU-IMF fiscal audit that has frozen Greece's bailout loan payments.
But when parliament failed to elect a president in December, a general election became inevitable.
It is not the first time Samaras' risk-taking has put his career on the line.
Two decades ago, as foreign minister, he did not hesitate to bring down the government over a fight about the official name of neighbouring Macedonia.
And in 2012, as opposition leader, Samaras insisted on ending a six-month caretaker government under former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos.
It took back-to-back ballots in May and June 2012 to form a shaky coalition government, stalling fiscal reforms and sparking speculation that Greece was about to be ejected from the eurozone.
Samaras at the time promised to do everything to keep Greece in the euro, but also argued for an easing of the terms of the EU-IMF bailout.
Foreign creditors and EU capitals geared up for a fight -- but once in power, Samaras jumped on the austerity bandwagon.
- Meteoric rise and fall -
Having entered parliament aged 26 after an elite education, Samaras had a meteoric rise to power which was cut short during a crisis with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia in the 1990s.
He then formed his own party, Political Spring, but its early success fizzled out and he disappeared from politics for almost a decade.
In 2004, Samaras was allowed to rejoin New Democracy and five years later he beat Dora Bakoyannis, the daughter of the prime minister he toppled in the 1990s, to become party leader.
Part of a prominent Greek family, Samaras holds economics and business degrees from Amherst College and Harvard.
At Amherst, he was friends with former Greek prime minister and socialist party (Pasok) leader George Papandreou, who was later to become his political rival, a source of amusement for the Greek media.
Samaras took a strong stance on immigration, pledging to "take back" Greek cities from "illegal invaders" -- a reference to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, which he placed in detention centres and deported.
Ironically, critics say Samaras himself is partly to blame for Greece's immigration problem.
As foreign minister some two decades ago, he is said to have contributed to the first wave of illegal migration by opening the border to ethnic Greeks from neighbouring Albania when its communist regime imploded.
A father of two, Samaras's ancestors were wealthy ethnic Greek merchants from Alexandria, Egypt, who founded the Benaki Museum, one of Greece's leading cultural establishments.
His great-grandmother Penelope Delta was one of the country's best-loved novelists.
Prime minister during one of the toughest periods in modern Greek history, Antonis Samaras’ penchant for risky politics could cost him his job in Sunday’s election.
The Harvard-educated 63-year-old says salvation is in sight for Greece after six painful years of recession.
But to reap the rewards, Samaras warns Greeks must shut their ears to the far-left Syriza party’s promises to end austerity.
“Today we decide if are going forward or if we are going towards the unknown,” Samaras said as he voted in his home town of Pylos in the Peloponnese.
But the outgoing premier finds himself in a situation of his own making after his latest political gamble backfired.
In a bold move, he pushed forward a presidential election by two months, hoping to gain time to complete a EU-IMF fiscal audit that has frozen Greece’s bailout loan payments.
But when parliament failed to elect a president in December, a general election became inevitable.
It is not the first time Samaras’ risk-taking has put his career on the line.
Two decades ago, as foreign minister, he did not hesitate to bring down the government over a fight about the official name of neighbouring Macedonia.
And in 2012, as opposition leader, Samaras insisted on ending a six-month caretaker government under former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos.
It took back-to-back ballots in May and June 2012 to form a shaky coalition government, stalling fiscal reforms and sparking speculation that Greece was about to be ejected from the eurozone.
Samaras at the time promised to do everything to keep Greece in the euro, but also argued for an easing of the terms of the EU-IMF bailout.
Foreign creditors and EU capitals geared up for a fight — but once in power, Samaras jumped on the austerity bandwagon.
– Meteoric rise and fall –
Having entered parliament aged 26 after an elite education, Samaras had a meteoric rise to power which was cut short during a crisis with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia in the 1990s.
He then formed his own party, Political Spring, but its early success fizzled out and he disappeared from politics for almost a decade.
In 2004, Samaras was allowed to rejoin New Democracy and five years later he beat Dora Bakoyannis, the daughter of the prime minister he toppled in the 1990s, to become party leader.
Part of a prominent Greek family, Samaras holds economics and business degrees from Amherst College and Harvard.
At Amherst, he was friends with former Greek prime minister and socialist party (Pasok) leader George Papandreou, who was later to become his political rival, a source of amusement for the Greek media.
Samaras took a strong stance on immigration, pledging to “take back” Greek cities from “illegal invaders” — a reference to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, which he placed in detention centres and deported.
Ironically, critics say Samaras himself is partly to blame for Greece’s immigration problem.
As foreign minister some two decades ago, he is said to have contributed to the first wave of illegal migration by opening the border to ethnic Greeks from neighbouring Albania when its communist regime imploded.
A father of two, Samaras’s ancestors were wealthy ethnic Greek merchants from Alexandria, Egypt, who founded the Benaki Museum, one of Greece’s leading cultural establishments.
His great-grandmother Penelope Delta was one of the country’s best-loved novelists.
