Giorgos Kaminis | |
---|---|
Γεώργιος Καμίνης | |
Mayor of Athens | |
In office 1 January 2011 – 1 May 2019 | |
Preceded by | Nikitas Kaklamanis |
Succeeded by | Georgios Broulias |
Greek Ombudsman | |
In office April 2003 – September 2010 | |
Preceded by | Nikiforos Diamandouros |
Succeeded by | Calliope Spanou |
Member of the Hellenic Parliament | |
In office 7 July 2019 – 22 April 2023 | |
Personal details | |
Born | New York City, U.S. | July 15, 1954
Nationality |
Greek American |
Political party | Renewal Movement for Change |
Other political affiliations | PASOK |
Alma mater |
University of Athens Panthéon-Assas University Panthéon-Sorbonne University |
Occupation | Politician, jurist |
Profession | Lawyer |
Signature | |
Georgios Kaminis ( Greek: Γεώργιος Καμίνης; born 15 July 1954) is a Greek American politician and professor of constitutional law. He was the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until September 2010 and Mayor of Athens from 2011 until 2019. [1] [2]
Giorgos Kaminis was born in New York City, [3] where his father, Vasilis Kaminis was working at the time. He holds both Greek and American citizenship. At the age of five he left New York and moved to Athens. [4]
He studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens, graduating in 1980. He conducted postgraduate studies in public law at Panthéon-Assas University, gaining a MAS in 1982, [5] followed by the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where he obtained a doctorat d'État en droit in 1989. [6]
In November 1982, he was hired as a research and teaching fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens. He was elected a lecturer in 1991 and an assistant professor in 1998. [7] [6]
From September 1989, he has been a research fellow at the Department of Parliamentary Studies and Research of the Directorate of Studies of the Greek Parliament. [6]
Αfter serving as a Deputy Ombudsman for Human Rights, from 1998 to 2003, [6] he served as the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until his resignation in September 2010, to run in upcoming local elections. [8]
Kaminis was elected Mayor of Athens after the second round of the Greek local elections of 2010. [9] Kaminis, who ran as an independent, [10] had been nominated by the small, newly formed Democratic Left party and was also backed by the country's ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement, the Ecologist Greens and Portokali ( Drassi and the Liberal Alliance). [4] [11] He won 52% of the vote in the second round of voting, defeating Nikitas Kaklamanis, the centre-right incumbent supported by New Democracy and the Popular Orthodox Rally. He was the first left-of-centre candidate elected mayor of the Greek capital, historically a conservative stronghold, in more than two decades. [12] He was re-elected in 2014, defeating the Syriza candidate Gabriel Sakellaridis in the second round.
On 24 February 2018, he announced the formation of a political tendency called Renewal ( Greek: Ανανέωση) within the Movement for Change, a nascent political alliance of centre-left parties formed around PASOK. [13] On 7 July 2019, he was one of the 12 candidates elected to the Hellenic Parliament through party-list proportional representation. On 22 June 2022, he announced that he would not contest the next election. [14]
Kaminis is married to Adamantia Anagnostou, a lecturer at the University of Macedonia. They have two daughters, Angeliki and Katerina-Markella. [4]
Γ. Καμίνης για τη δημαρχία του 2011 – 2019: «Φτιάξαμε μαζί το μέλλον της Αθήνας σε στέρεες βάσεις» - Στην Αθήνα αφήνω ό,τι ακριβώς δεν βρήκα, οικονομικούς πόρους και σχέδιο για την πόλη (translation: G. Kaminis for the mayor of 2011 - 2019: "Together we built the future of Athens on a solid basis" - In Athens I leave exactly what I did not initially find, financial resources and a plan for the city)