Australian Outlook

Who's Who of the G20

12 Nov 2014
Roselina Press
Image credit: Flickr (DonkeyHotey)

Brisbane is the host city for the 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit, an event that is being called the most significant meeting of world leaders that Australia has ever hosted.

But what do we know about the leaders who will be arriving next month?

As our table shows, only four of the G20 leaders are women: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

In terms of religion, Roman Catholicism is the faith that most leaders share. China’s President Xi Jinping, South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye and France’s President François Hollande are atheists.

The youngest leader is Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at 39 years of age. King Abdullah ibn Abdilazīz of Saudi Arabia is the most senior member at 90.

In terms of education, the vast majority of leaders have tertiary qualifications, but Jacob Zuma has risen to become South Africa’s President despite receiving no formal education.

Most G20 leaders lean slightly to the right of the political spectrum, with most leading centre-right and right-wing political parties.

 

    Head of State Age Political Party Religion Education
Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner 61 Justicialist Party (Centre) Roman Catholicism Law, National University of La Plata
Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott 56 Liberal Party of Australia Roman Catholicism Rhodes Scholar and Master of Arts (Politics and Philosophy), Oxford University
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff 66 Workers’ Party (Centre-left to Left-wing) Roman Catholicism Bachelor of Arts/Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper 55 Conservative Party Christian MA Economics, University of Calgary
China President Xi Jinping 61 Communist Party Atheist Doctoral degree in Law, Tsinghua University
France President François Hollande 60 Socialist Party Atheist Graduated from Ecole Nationale d’Administration, which trains high-level French civil servants
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel 60 Christian Democratic Union (Centre-right) Lutheranism Doctorate in Physics, Leipzig University
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi 64 Bharatiya Janata Party (Right-wing) Hinduism MA in Political Science, Gujarat University
Indonesia President Joko Widodo 53 Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (Social democrat) Islam BA in Forestry, Gadjah Mada University
Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi 39 Democratic Party (Centre-left) Roman Catholicism Law degree, University of Florence
Japan Prime Minister Shinzō Abe 60 Liberal Democratic Party (Centre-right to Right-wing) Shintoism/Zen Buddhism Degree in Political Science, Seikei University
South Korea President Park Geun-hye 62 Saenuri Party (Centre-right to Right-wing) Atheist BA in Electronic Engineering, Sogang University
Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto 48 Institutional Revolutionary Party (Centre to Centre-left) Roman Catholicism MA degree in Business Administration, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education
Russia President Vladimir Putin 62 United Russia (Conservatism, Statism) Russian Orthodox International Law, Leningrad State University; Later studied at KGB School No. 1 in Moscow
Saudi Arabia King Abdullah ibn Abdilazīz of Saudi Arabia 90 N/A Wahhabism Early education at the Royal Court
South Africa President Jacob Zuma 72 South African Communist Party Protestantism Received no formal schooling
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 60 Justice and Development Party (Centre-right) Sunni Islam Business Administration, Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron 47 Conservative Party Anglicanism BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Brasenose College, Oxford
United States President Barack Obama 53 Democrat Christianity J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard
European Union Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council & José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission 66—58 Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (Centre-right)—Social Democratic Party (Centre-right) Roman Catholicism—Roman Catholicism MA in Applied Economics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven—MSc in Economic and Social Sciences, University of Geneva

 

 

Roselina Press is a graduate student of Melbourne School of Government, The University of Melbourne.
 

This article was originally published in the G20 Watch. It is republished with permission.