Giorgos Kaminis


Georgios Kaminis is a Greek professor of constitutional law. He was the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until September 2010 and mayor of Athens from 2011 until 2019.

Early life

Giorgos Kaminis was born in New York City, where his father, Vasilis Kaminis was working at the time. He holds both American citizenship along with his Greek citizenship. At the age of five he left New York and moved to Athens.

Education

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, followed by the Pantheon-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 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.

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 Mayor of Athens 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 Ecologist Greens party, and Portokali. In the second round of voting he got 52% of the vote and defeated Nikitas Kaklamanis, the centre-right incumbent supported by New Democracy and Popular Orthodox Rally won in the capital, historically a conservative stronghold, which elected a left-of-centre candidate for the first time in more than two decades.
He was re-elected in the 2014 elections defeating SYRIZA-supported Gabriel Sakellaridis in the second round. His tenure ends in 2019.

Personal life

Kaminis is married to Adamantia Anagnostou, a lecturer at the University of Macedonia. They have two daughters, Angeliki and Katerina-Markella.

Publications