Konstantinos Achileas Karamanlis (; born 12 December 1974), commonly known as Kostas Karamanlis (, ), is a Greek politician. From 2019 to 2023, he served as the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport in the cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, until his resignation following the

Tempi train crash On 28 February 2023, a head-on collision occurred between two trains south of the Vale of Tempe, Tempe Valley in Greece, about halfway between the Greek villages of Tempi (municipality), Tempi and Evangelismos, Larissa, Evangelismos in the Th ...

disaster.

Early life and career

Karamanlis comes from a family with long political traditions. He is the son of politician , nephew of

Konstantinos Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis (, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998) was a Greek statesman who was the four-time Prime Minister of Greece and two-term president of the Third Hellenic Republic. A towering figure of Greek politics, his political caree ...

and cousin of

Kostas Karamanlis Konstantinos A. Karamanlis (; born 14 September 1956), commonly known as Kostas Karamanlis (, ), is a Greek retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece, prime minister of Greece from 2004 to 2009. He was also president of the Centr ...

. Karamanlis studied history and economics at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...

in New York, then studied at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

in Massachusetts. From 2002 to 2004, he worked in London at the Swiss investment bank

UBS Warburg UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major fina ...

. Later, for ten years he was managing director of a shipping company in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

Political career

Karamanlis became involved in political activities representing

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 ...

. In January 2015, he was first elected a member of 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 ...

in the

Serres Serres ( ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northern Greece. The c ...

constituency. He successfully ran for re-election in the elections in September 2015 and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. In July 2019, the Prime Minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Kyriakos Mitsotakis (, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy (Greece), New ...

appointed Karamanlis with the position of Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. On 1 March 2023, he

resign Resignation is the formal act of relinquishing or vacating one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or ...

ed in response to the previous day's

, to " akeobjective political responsibility". He ran however again in the May 2023 election and was re-elected in his constituency of

. In an article published by Politico, Karamanlis was mentioned as one of the two former ministers suspected by EPPO prosecutors for breach of duty in connection with the

in Feb 28 2023 where 57 people were killed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karamanlis, Kostas 1974 births Living people Politicians from Athens Hamilton College (New York) alumni Tufts University alumni New Democracy (Greece) politicians Government ministers of Greece Greek MPs 2015–2019 Greek MPs 2019–2023 Karamanlis family Greek MPs 2023–