Leonidas Kouris

Leonidas Kouris ( _el. Λεωνίδας Κουρής) is a Greek politician. He was born in Athens in 1949 and has lived in Pikermi since 1979.

Kouris graduated from the famous Varvakeion school and has degrees in mineralogical engineering from the National Technical University and in economics from the Economic University of Athens. He did his postgraduate study in the Administration of Enterprises and Regional Growth. Kouris is a member of the Technical and Economic Chamber, and of many Greek and foreign scientific associations and institutes. Kouris has been elected repeatedly to the administration of the Technical Chamber and of the Association of Engineers. Since 1971, after he completed his army duties serving in the navy, has been an executive in large private and public enterprises, such as the Public Power Corporation. He was an advisor in the Ministries of Industry, Energy and Finance between 1977 and 1981.

In 1986, he was elected Municipal Advisor of Athens with Mayor Miltiadis Evert, and in 1990 with Mayor Antonis Tritsis. He served as a vice-mayor of Athens from 1987 until 1992, responsible for the city's technical, administrative and economic services. In April 1992, after the death of Antonis Tritsis, he was elected Mayor. During his term he put forward a wide program of work aiming to improve quality of life, to enlarge technical infrastructure and social concern, and to support culture and sports. One of the main subjects in his agenda was a tram in Athens as Tritsis has imagined it, useful and around the historical-centre of the city. He is thought by many to have been one of the best mayors Athens have ever seen and maybe the best in the last 30 years, as his administration was equal to all people. Therefore it was a surprise that Evert, with who had worked together many years in Ministries of Industry, Energy and Finance and also in the City of Athens, did not nominate him as New Democracy candidate for the City of Athens in 1994 and instead he nominated Avramopoulos. But even Avramopoulos recognized Kouris work while being mayor and gave him in 1995 the Golden Medal of Athens, the major honor of the City of Athens.

As Chairman of [KEDKE] , he fought for the consolidation and enlargement of the administrative independence and economic self-reliance of municipalities and communities. He also achieved the establishment, for the first time in Greece, of elected Prefectural self-government. He was head of the delegation of Greek local self-government in the Council of Europe (1993-1994) and a member of the presiding board of the Committee of Regions of the European Union (1994-1995). From 1995-1997, he was an advisor to the Chairman of the New Democracy party and Chairman of the KETA (Central Committee of Local Self-government) of New Democracy. In the 4th Congress of New Democracy (1997) he was elected a member of the Central Committee. He is also said to be the link between Miltiadis Evert and Konstantinos Karamanlis in this congress, which was the congress in which Evert stepped out as president of New Democracy and Karamanlis took his position. From 1997-2000, he was a Deputy from Attica. He was elected Chairman of Internal commission of New Democracy and appointed special rapporteur on prefectural and local self-government in the Budget on prefectural and local self-government. He served on the Permanent Committees of Economic Affairs, Internal–Public Administration, and Educational Affairs.With continuous interpellations he addressed systematically the important problems of each region of Attica, presenting the lack of total planning for the balanced growth of region. After he was not re-elected in the 2000 elections, it was thought that he was going to retire from politics. However, he returned to run for the position of the Prefect of East Attica; the prefect in which he has lived for almost 30 years. By many his decision to return to politics is explained because the elected prefects was an idea of his which he achieved to establish as a mayor of Athens and president of KEDKE. Also by most of the East Attica citizens he was seen as the only solution against the problems resulting from the rapid expansion of the area without prior appropriate development existing. As a result in October 2002, he was elected Prefect of Eastern Attica for the term 2002-2006, with 50.1% of the voters from the first round of the elections. After serving one term in office, he ran again for the position in the 2006 elections. In which he got 54.6% having the biggest winning margin ever recorded in Greece. In 2006 the job he was doing all these years was rewarded by his fellow citizens.

After the October elections, and as he was the only New Democracy prefect in Attica he was favorite to be supported by New Democracy to run for president of ENAE. However, because he did not want to participate in the talks about these elections he did not even run to be elected a member of the board. When the elections were finished, he made an announcement that from the start had said to the general secretary of New Democracy Mr. Zagoritis that he did not want to be involved in the background talks regarding ENAE and for that reason he could not understand why some people continued mentioning his name and generating scenarios which had nothing to do with reality. He also said in that statement, that the principles that follow him all over his way in politics and public life are non-negotiable, and that people should understand it and stop releasing stories and scenarios from the press hoping to make him follow their wants being afraid of the public costs.

Kouris has also been linked in 1998, 2002 and 2006 for running as Super-Prefect of Athens and Piraeus.

Kouris is mostly known for keeping low profile, being a hard worker and it seems that his is getting uncomfortable when the media lights are onto him. He is the kind of a politician that has only the necessary relations with the media, and prefers to do the job he is elected to do instead of promoting himself in the media. Also for the record Kouris -the o Deputy- was one of the politicians that lost money in the 1999 stock exchange market of Athens scandal. And more especially he did not lose them by playing as more Greek people did, but by not selling the stocks he had even when the prices were boosted.

He is married to Aggela Bas Xintara and has three children, Eirianna, a student of philosophy at the University of Athens; Vasilis, a student of political science; and Nikos, presently a Lyceum student.