As a close associate of Andreas Papandreou, Koutsogiorgas became a founding member of the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) during the
metapolitefsi. He was elected Member of Parliament in the first national election that took place in November 1974 after the fall of the military government. He held a parliament seat for the prefecture of Achaea in all successive national elections until 1989. In the first PASOK cabinet, Koutsogiorgas was appointed Minister to the Presidency of the Government on 21 October 1981, a post he held until 17 January 1984, when he was named
Minister for the Interior. He held the post until resigning on 9 May 1985 before the
parliamentary elections, with the exception of the period 22 May – 21 June 1984, when he was replaced by an acting minister for the
European Parliament election. During this time he played a major role in the March 1985 political crisis over the issue of the re-nomination of then-
President of Greece Constantine Karamanlis for a second term. Papandreou had promised it several times, but the PASOK party base and Koutsogiorgas himself fiercely opposed it. Eventually, largely through Koutsogiorgas insistence PASOK proposed the judge
Christos Sartzetakis for the post. Following PASOK's electoral victory in the 1985 election, Koutsogiorgas was re-appointed Interior Minister on 5 June 1985. In the reshuffle of 26 July 1985, he assumed the
Public Order portfolio as well, keeping it until 25 April 1986. He remained Interior Minister until 5 February 1987, and on 23 September 1987, he was appointed
Vice-president of the Government and
Minister for Justice. On 18 May, the PASOK Central Committee voted against him standing as a candidate during the
June 1989 parliamentary elections until the investigation on the Bank of Crete case was complete. The trial began in a heavily politicized atmosphere on 11 March 1991, broadcast on live television. Koutsogiorgas stood his ground and his examination of prosecution witness Ioannis Kamaras (chief auditor of the
Bank of Greece) exposed many flaws in the prosecution's case. On 11 April, while examining a witness (Stathis Papageorgiou, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece), Koutsogiorgas collapsed in the courtroom and died seven days later. His funeral gathered large crowds in the center of Athens and developed into a political protest against the continuing proceedings of the Special Tribunal. The later was seen by a large part of the press and the population as politically motivated and a result of partisan politics. == Family ==