Panagiotis Kouroumplis is a Member of the Hellenic Parliament elected in the second constituency of Athens. He holds a Law degree and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Athens.    

He was born in Aetoloakarnania in 1951. At age 10 he lost his eyesight from the explosion of a German hand-grenade, a remnant of WW II. After attending the School for the Blind in Athens he became a pioneer in the creation of the Greek disability rights movement and took active part in student and popular movements. During the period 1976-1981 he championed the cause of the Blind, demanding the enshrinement of their rights to employment and education.

Panagiotis Kouroumplis is the first blind Greek to be elected in parliament. In the period 1993 to 1996 he served as General Secretary for Welfare in the Ministry of Health, introducing several innovative welfare infrastructure schemes in the fields of children protection, care for the elderly and the disabled.

He served as MP for PASOK from 1996 to 2004 and from 2009 to 2011. In June of that year he was expelled from PASOK after voting against the mid-term austerity program. In 2012 he was elected MP with SYRIZA and served as the party’s Parliamentary Spokesman. Following SYRIZA’s victory in the January 2015 general election Kouroumplis was appointed Minister of Health. In the second SYRIZA government, which took office in September 2015, he was appointed Minister of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction. Today he holds the position of Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, following a November 2016 government reshuffle.

Panagiotis Kouroumplis often cites his own disability to encourage the young to be masters of their own fate and to argue that in life nothing is given, rather everything is earned. He has received several awards in Greece and abroad for his achievements and social contribution. He is married and has two children.