Giannis Ziagas, former MEP and PASOK MP has died at the age of 84, leaving behind a rich legacy in the political and social arena. In recent years he was the owner and publisher of the historic newspaper “EREYNA” in Trikala.

His funeral will take place on Wednesday 29 January at 1 pm at the Church of St Nicholas in Trikala.

Giannis Ziagas was a founding member of PASOK and was elected as a Trikala MP and MEP. He was president of the war industries Stayer-Hellas (ELVO) and PyRKAL, and from 1993 to 1996 he served as deputy governor of the National Bank of Greece. In addition, from 2005 to 2015 he held the position of special adviser to the President of the Republic, Karolos Papoulias. His brother, Michalis Ziagkas, who was secretary in the former Prime Minister’s private office, also had close ties with Andreas Papandreou.

Born in Trikala on 12 December 1940, he studied civil engineering at the Graz University of Technology in Austria and went on to postgraduate studies in economic planning and political economy at the International Institute for Industrial Development in Vienna. During the dictatorship, he joined the PAC and later, in the post-war period, he was actively involved in PASOK.

Yannis Ziagas was appointed chairman of the Board of Directors of Steyer – Hellas in 1981, and in 1982 he took the position of MEP in place of Antonis Georgiadis. He returned to Greece in 1984 to take over the management of PYRKAL, which had recently been nationalised by the Papandreou government. In 1986 he was elected MP for Trikala, taking the seat of the late Konstantinos Alexiadis, and served in the Parliament until 2000, except for the period 1993-1996 when he was deputy governor of the National Bank.

Yannis Ziagas also became involved in publishing when his family acquired the historic newspaper “HEREYNA” in the 1990s. Initially, his wife, Maria, was the editor, and then he took on the role of editor and director. He leaves behind two sons, Dimitri and Nikos, and grandchildren, making him a man who consistently served both politics and society.