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One of the things that the industrialist Odysseas Kiriakopoulos and the banker Andreas Vgenopoulos have in common is the championship they both held in two parallel polls of GRReporter. At the end of 2010 we launched a poll for our readers to vote for the winner and the biggest loser of 2010. Both options offered rich and interesting choices.
  

Among the potential winners was ranked the Financial Minister George Papaconstantinou. His nomination was inevitable having in mind that he still managed to implement the measures for financial consolidation despite he was decisively repulsed during the year. Moreover, he even managed to reduce the deficit of Greece by around 6% although he did not manage to bring the planned revenues from taxes in the state treasury. The budget deficit fell from 15.4% of GDP to 9.4% of GDP. This impressed the supervisory Troika but not the international markets, unfortunately. Furthermore, George Papaconstantinou did not resign - a step that some others would prefer to take.
  

Another candidate winner in our poll was the former ombutsman of Greece George Kaminis who was head and shoulders above his rival Nikitas Kaklamanis during the mayoral elections in November. This may not seem so important at first glance but Kaminis supported by PASOK in 2010 broke the 26-year reign of New Democracy in the mayor's chair of the ancient capital. Athens had a socialist ruler again for the first time in 1984 which put Kaminis in our poll. 

The beautiful and intelligent model Vicky Kagia has also found a place in the list of the possible winners. And not because her TV show Next Top Model has lived to its second season, but because she has finally got married to her longtime partner Nikos Krithariotis in 2010. Many of you would say that it is not difficult to marry when you are beautiful, famous and successful, but no one knows how heavy the crown of a princess could be!

The indisputable 2010 favourite of GRReporter’s readers turned out to be the last in the list – the industrialist Odysseas Kiriakopoulos. The profit of the company S&B Industrial Minerals SA managed by him registered 255% increase for the first nine months of the last year compared with the same period of 2009. This gained him the title Winner of 2010 through the votes of GRReporter’s Bulgarian, Greek and English speaking audience. The results from the Bulgarian and English readers are almost the same with only one percentage point of difference - 42% of the Bulgarian readers and 41% of English page visitors voted for the industrialist. The percentage support of Odysseas Kiriakopoulos by our Greek readers is significantly higher – 65%.

The first place but in our second poll – Who is the biggest 2010 loser? – is for Andreas Vgenopoulos. He spent two years in the board of the football team Panatanaikos and left it over 20 million poorer and blemished by literally both players and fans of the club. This has apparently awakened our readers’ deep sympathy and they have unanimously decided that no other man has been harder done by than Vgenopoulous in 2010. But he is not to be pitied given that he is the president of the Marfin Investment Group (MIG) consisting of a bank, insurance company, Olympic airlines, and other extras.

Nevertheless, GRReporter’s readers have ruled out - 36% of the Bulgarian audience believes Andreas Vgenopoulos is the biggest last year’s loser. The same opinion share 32% of the English audience and 56% of the Greek readers agree that 20 million euros less and quitting the football club of your heart make you a Loser! Vgenopoulos’ rivals in this category are the politician Dora Bakoyannis, the leader of New Democracy Antonis Samaras and the criminal Alket Rizai.

The daughter of the former Prime Minister of Greece and Honorary President of New Democracy Konstantinos Mitsotakis was disaffiliated from the party having openly declared her support of the Memorandum of financial assistance in the spring of 2010. Only Dora Bakoyannis decided to resist the new blue leader Antonis Samaras and to oppose him in public concerning the opposition policy pursued by him which led to her expulsion from the ranks of New Democracy.

In her case, however, it would be better to say that there are gains for all our losses. Several months later the clever Dora founded a new center-right party Democratic Alliance and shook the power balance of the political life of the Right in the country.

However, this is not the reason to include the blue leader Antonis Samaras in the poll for the biggest 2010 loser. The dramatic defeat of New Democracy in the elections for mayors and city councilors have made him part of it.  

The name of an already legendary criminal Alket Razai entered the poll for the biggest loser in 2010. He succeeded to escape from the Athens prison Korydallos by helicopter twice just like a super-action hero but has fallen in the clutches of justice forever (or at least the authorities hope it). He lost his freedom and the specialized bodies have assured that escape opportunities from the Die Hard type cell are gone for the romantic villain.

We thank you all for voting and invite you to participate in our new poll: Do you agree with the liberalization of the labour market in Greece.