Fotis Kouvelis

Fotis - Fanourios ( Fotis ) Kouvelis (Greek Φώτης - Φανούριος ( Φώτης ) Κουβέλης; born September 3, 1948 in Volos ) is a Greek lawyer and politician. He is chairman of the party Dimokratiki Aristera ( Democratic Left ).

Kouvelis studied law and political science at the University of Athens. He worked as a lawyer and president of the Bar of Athens.

He joined the Lambrakis Youth and was a founding member of the Euro -communist " KKE Esoterikou " ( ' domestic KKE '); whose central committee he was a member until the decline of the party. In 1987 he was involved in the founding of the successor party Elliniki Aristera ( Greek Left ) and became its Secretary General 1989 until 1992.

1989 Kouvelis was a few months the Minister of Justice in the government of Tzannis Tzannetakis.

In the parliamentary elections of November 1989, he was elected on the list of the left electoral alliance Synaspismos for the first time as a deputy in the Parliament and re-elected in the parliamentary elections in 1990. In the parliamentary elections of 1993 Synaspismos failed at the three percent clause in the parliamentary elections of 1996, but 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009 succeeded Kouvelis reelection, starting in 2004 with the electoral alliance SYRIZA. After the 2009 elections, he was parliamentary spokesman of SYRIZA.

In February 2008 he was a candidate for the presidency of SYRIZA, but lost Alexis Tsipras.

In June 2010, Kouvelis announced as the head of a reform wing to the exit from the SYRIZA and a little later the formation of a new party, the Dimokratiki Aristera ( Democratic Left ). On 10 July 2010 he was elected to the first Congress of this party whose chairman.