Dimitris Koutsoumpas
Dimitrios Koutsoumbas, known as Dimitris Koutsoumbas is a Greek communist politician and member of the Hellenic Parliament who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece since 14 April 2013.
Early life and education
Koutsoumbas was born on 10 August 1955 in Lamia, Greece. His family were militants in the Greek resistance as part of the National Liberation Front, and some of them were executed by the Nazi troops during the Axis occupation of Greece or by the military courts in the period of the Greek Civil War; the rest were imprisoned and exiled. His father, Apostolis Koutsoumbas, a member of the KKE, was exiled for his political actions; he was arrested in 1945 in Larissa, tried, imprisoned, and exiled for eight years. Koutsoumbas graduated from high school in June 1973, took the Apolytirion and studied law. He entered the Law Department of the National and [Kapodistrian University of Athens].Political career
Koutsoumbas participated in the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the Regime of the Colonels in November 1973 and joined the outlawed Communist Youth of Greece in December. In 1987, Koutsoumbas was elected for the first time to the Central Committee of the KKE, to which he was reelected in the following years. In 1996, he was elected for the first time to the central committee's political bureau. In the same year, he became the director of Rizospastis, the official newspaper of the party, in which post he remained for the following decade. During his political career, he was also the head of the International Relations Section of the Central Committee. He was a candidate in the parliamentary elections of 2000 and 2007 for the Boeotia prefecture but was not elected.At the 19th Party Congress on 14 April 2013, Koutsoumbas was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Committee, succeeding Aleka Papariga. Since January 2015, he has been a member of the Hellenic Parliament. In October 2023, he emerged as the most popular political figure in the country for the first time according to a poll by Metron Analysis for Mega TV, with a 47% approval rating, ahead of the incumbent prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at 44%.
Works
Koutsoumbas was the director of the newspaper Rizospastis, the Organ of the Central Committee of the KKE, from May 1996 when he was elected to the Political Bureau, until 2006. Holding the position of the General Secretary of the Central Committee, he continued to write numerous articles and deliver speeches.Translated articles
- The significance of the October Revolution in the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism-communism
- We draw conclusions, we become stronger
- The new, yet very old, "Great Idea" of the European capital and the communists' response
- We are moving into the new phase with greater vigilance, taking advantage of the experience and possibilities for an ideological - political counterattack and rallying of popular forces to the Party
- We make a vanguard contribution to the reinforcement of the current disputing the dominant policy among the people by intensifying our ideological - political - organizational action
Translated speeches
- At event of the Communist Party (Italy) on the 98th anniversary of the October Revolution in Rome, 2015
- At the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties in St. Petersburg, 2017
- At the teleconference of the European Communist Initiative on the 100th anniversary of the USSR, 2022
- At the founding meeting of the European Communist Action in Athens, 2023
- At anti-imperialist rally in Athens, 2024
- At the 50th KNE-Odigitis Festival at the Tritsis Park, 2024
- At Brussels meeting of European communists, 2024
- At the hybrid meeting of the ECA in Berlin, 2025
- At Party event in Larissa, 2025
- At concert at the Panathenaic Stadium commemorating Mikis Theodorakis, 2025
- At the 51st KNE-Odigitis Festival in Thessaloniki, 2025