On 13 February 2004, in the run-up to the
7 March legislative election, he was appointed interim
Minister for the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization in the cabinet of
Kostas Simitis. Following the electoral victory of the opposition
New Democracy party, he resigned along with the rest of the cabinet on 10 March. On 17 February 2015, he was nominated by
The River party as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic in the
Greek presidential election, 2014–15. He stood against
Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a veteran
New Democracy politician, nominated by
Syriza and supported by ND, Syriza and the latter's coalition partner,
ANEL. Alivizatos was also supported by the socialist
PASOK. On 18 February, Pavlopoulos was elected as the new President of the Republic with 233 votes in favour, while 30 were for Alivizatos, and 32 MPs (from the Communists and
Golden Dawn) voted "present". == References ==