Sokratis Kosmidis


Sokratis Kosmidis is a Greek lawyer and politician who served as Cabinet Secretary as well as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament.

Biography

Sokratis Kosmidis was born in Piraeus, the youngest of three children born to Ioannis Kosmidis, a shoemaker, and to his wife, Eleni. He is the youngest of three children. He studied Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is married to Domniki Kosmidou, and has two children, Ioanna and Nikolaos. He currently resides in Voula.

Legal career

Sokratis Kosmidis worked as a lawyer for 25 years, between 1968 and 1993. During this time, Kosmidis served the following positions in his home city of Piraeus: From 1975 to 1978, he was director and columnist of the newspaper 'Piraeus Echoes' ; Between 1984 and 1987, he sat on the board of directors of the Piraeus Lawyer Association; From 1982 to 1989, he was president of the board of directors of the Insurance Fund for Maritime Agents and Employees.
Following his two-year period as Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, from 1993-1995, Kosmidis returned to practice law for a few months, before retiring from law altogether.

Political career

Following the elections of 1993, Kosmidis was recruited by Minister of Trade Costas Simitis to the Ministry of Trade. He was Secretary of the Ministry of Trade for two years, before returning to practice Law. After working as a lawyer for a few more months, he was recruited yet again, this time to become Secretary of the Ministry of Public Order. After seven months, however, he was appointed Cabinet Secretary by new Prime Minister Costas Simitis, a position which he immediately accepted and held for eight years.
Kosmidis is known to have been one of the close associates of Prime Minister Costas Simitis.
Following the elections of 2004, Kosmidis, now a prominent member of the PASOK party, became a Member of the Hellenic Parliament. He retired in 2007.
Kosmidis is known to have centrist, or center-left policies. He was part of the group of politicians that led PASOK to become more of a centrist party during the early 21st century.

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