Georgios Kaminis (; born 15 July 1954) is a

Greek American Greek Americans ( ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. There is an estimate of 1.2 million Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. According to the US census, 264,066 people o ...

politician and professor of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

. He was the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until September 2010 and

Mayor of Athens The mayor of Athens is the head of Athens#municipality of Athens, Athens. The current mayor is Haris Doukas who assumed office on 1 January 2024. Kingdom of Greece (1832–1924) Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935) Kingdom of Greece (1935 ...

from 2011 until 2019.

Early life

Giorgos Kaminis was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where his father, Vasilis Kaminis was working at the time. He holds both

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

citizenship. At the age of five he left New York and moved to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Education

He studied at the Faculty of Law of the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

, graduating in 1980. He conducted postgraduate studies in

public law Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...

at Panthéon-Assas University, gaining a MAS in 1982, followed by the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where he obtained a '' doctorat d'État en droit'' in 1989.

Career

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 Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in 1991 and an assistant professor in 1998. 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 The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme democratic instit ...

Greek Ombudsman

Αfter serving as a Deputy Ombudsman for Human Rights, from 1998 to 2003, he served as the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until his resignation in September 2010, to run in upcoming local elections.

Mayor of Athens

Kaminis was elected

after the second round of the Greek local elections of 2010. Kaminis, who ran as an independent, had been nominated by the small, newly formed Democratic Left party and was also backed by the country's ruling

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political r ...

, the

Ecologist Greens The Ecologist Greens (, ', OP) is a Greek green political party. It is a member of the European Green Party. History The political party Prasini Politiki (, "Green Politics"), the body that lead to the establishment of the party under the n ...

and Portokali (

Drassi Drassi (, "Action") was a liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in 2009 by Stefanos Manos and was led by former New Democracy member Theodoros Skylakakis. The party had no representation in the Hellenic Parliament or European ...

and the Liberal Alliance). He won 52% of the vote in the second round of voting, defeating

Nikitas Kaklamanis Nikitas M. Kaklamanis (; born 1 April 1946 in Andros) is a Greek politician who served as mayor of Athens from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Minister for Health and Social Solidarity from 2004 to 2006. In the Greek local elections of ...

, the

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

incumbent supported by

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

and the

Popular Orthodox Rally The Popular Orthodox Rally or People's Orthodox Alarm (Greek: Λαϊκός Ορθόδοξος Συναγερμός, ''Laikós Orthódoxos Synagermós''), often abbreviated to LAOS (ΛΑ.Ο.Σ.) as a reference to the Greek word for ''people'', is ...

. He was the first left-of-centre candidate elected mayor of the Greek capital, historically a conservative stronghold, in more than two decades. He was re-elected in 2014, defeating the

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

candidate Gabriel Sakellaridis in the second round.

Renewal

On 24 February 2018, he announced the formation of a political tendency called Renewal () within the

Movement for Change The Gorran Movement (, ''Movement for Change'') or just Gorran (''Change'') is a Kurds in Iraq, Kurdish political party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The party is led by Dana Ahmed Majid, it was formerly under the leadership of Omar Said ...

, a nascent

political alliance A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

parties formed around

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Greece, political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was Two-party system, one of the two major ...

. On 7 July 2019, he was one of the 12 candidates elected to the

Hellenic Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme demo ...

through

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

. On 22 June 2022, he announced that he would not contest the next election.

Personal life

Kaminis is married to Adamantia Anagnostou, a lecturer at the

University of Macedonia The University of Macedonia (UoM; , ΠΑΜΑΚ, ''Panepistímio Makedonías'', PAMAK) is a public university in Thessaloniki, Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, Greece. Founded as School of Higher Industrial Studies of Thessaloniki (in Greek Langua ...

. They have two daughters, Angelina and Katerina-Markella.

Publications

* *

References

External links

Official website''"In contest for the capital’s heart and soul"''
Interview of Giorgios Kaminis in Athens Plus. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaminis, Giorgos 1954 births Living people Ombudsmen in Greece American agnostics American emigrants to Greece Greek agnostics National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Mayors of Athens Politicians from New York City Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Greek MPs 2019–2023