Voulgarakis was born in Crete and holds a PhD in Political Marketing and Communication from the University of Athens. He is a member of the New Democracy party. He has been elected to parliament from the Athens A' Election Area constituency since the June 1989 parliamentary election and served as Deputy Minister for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Public Works from 3 December 1992 to 12 October 1993. He was Minister of Public Order in the government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis from 10 March 2004, at the difficult period of Athens Olympic Games 2004, until a cabinet reshuffle on 14 February 2006, when he was named Minister of Culture instead. This was considered a demotion in the wake of a phone-tapping scandal.A Greek prosecutor has backed claims by a group of Pakistani men that they were abducted by Greek and British intelligence agents in the wake of the London bombings. Georgios Voulgarakis denied any involvement but main opposition party PASOK and Human Rights Groups called for the resignation of Voulgarakis from his cabinet position.