Irina Sabine Alice Karamanos Adrian (born 29 October 1989) is a Chilean anthropologist and social scientist. She was the partner of President Gabriel Boric and served as First Lady of Chile and Sociocultural Coordinator of the Presidency of the Republic from March to December 2022. During her tenure, she oversaw the transfer of the foundations traditionally associated with the first lady's office to government ministries, leading to the closure of the Presidency's Sociocultural Coordination at the end of 2022.

A member of the Broad Front, Karamanos was previously a leader of the feminist front of Social Convergence, having earlier been a member of the Autonomist Movement. She has worked on projects involving culture, education, gender equality and political participation, and has been involved with feminist organizations and initiatives.

Early life and education

Irina Sabine Alice Karamanos Adrian was born in Santiago on 29 October 1989. Her father, Jorge Karamanos Elefteriu, was a Chilean schoolteacher of Greek descent and was active in Santiago's Greek community. Her paternal grandparents were born in Kymi, Greece, and later settled in Chile. Her mother, Sabine Alice Inés Adrian Gierke, was born in Uruguay to German parents and worked as a German-Spanish translator and teacher at the Goethe-Institut.

Karamanos attended the German School of Santiago and subsequently studied visual arts at the University of Chile for one year before moving to Germany. She studied at Heidelberg University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education Sciences and Social/Cultural Anthropology. She also undertook studies in cultural management, expression semiology and civic education.

She speaks Spanish, German, English and Greek, as well as basic Indonesian, and has studied Kawésqar, an Indigenous language of southern Chile.

Political activity

Karamanos joined the Autonomist Movement in 2016, after returning to Chile from Germany. She participated in the movement's cultural activities and later became involved in its feminist organizing. The Autonomist Movement was one of the organizations that formed Social Convergence in 2019, and Karamanos became a founding member of the new party and its national head of the Feminist Front.

She was also a coordinator of Abrecaminos, a platform associated with political participation by women and sexual and gender minorities. She wrote columns for Chilean media on gender parity and women's participation in politics and worked on the 2017 presidential campaign of Beatriz Sánchez. She subsequently worked on the successful 2017 congressional campaign of Gonzalo Winter.

Karamanos became the partner of Gabriel Boric in 2019. She participated actively in his 2021 presidential campaign and was part of the political organization surrounding his candidacy.

Following the 2024 merger of Social Convergence and other parties into the new Broad Front, Karamanos became a member of the new party.

First Lady of Chile

During Boric's presidential campaign, Karamanos questioned the traditional role of the first lady, arguing that it should be reconsidered in light of changing social and political conditions. Boric likewise said that the functions historically associated with the position should be exercised through public institutions and professional appointments rather than through the president's family relationships.

On 18 January 2022, Karamanos announced that she would nevertheless assume the role of first lady in order to reform it from within. She said that her priorities would include transgender youth, migrant children, interculturalism and Indigenous peoples.

Karamanos assumed the first lady role on 11 March 2022, when Boric took office, and was appointed Sociocultural Coordinator of the Presidency. In this capacity she oversaw the foundations traditionally associated with the first lady's office, including Integra, Prodemu, Todo Chilenter, Tiempos Nuevos, Artesanías de Chile and the Foundation of Youth and Children's Orchestras (FOJI).

In June 2022, the Presidency issued a resolution changing the name of the first lady's office to the "Irina Karamanos Cabinet" and assigning it functions that included identifying and coordinating strategic policy guidelines. The change attracted criticism because it was seen as personalizing a public institution. The government subsequently withdrew the resolution and restored the name "Sociocultural Coordination of the Presidency of the Republic". In October, the Office of the Comptroller General ruled that the resolution had not complied with the law, including because it assigned functions to the office that encroached on the responsibilities of other government bodies.

In October 2022, Karamanos announced a plan to transfer the functions of the Sociocultural Coordination and its foundations to government ministries. Under the plan, Prodemu was transferred to the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity; Integra, Todo Chilenter and Tiempos Nuevos, which operates the Interactive Museum Mirador, were transferred to the Ministry of Education; and Artesanías de Chile and FOJI were transferred to the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

Karamanos left the government on 29 December 2022. The Sociocultural Coordination formally closed on 31 December after the transfer of its functions and foundations to the ministries. The changes ended the institutional arrangement through which the president's partner had traditionally overseen the foundations, while the first lady remained a protocol role rather than an office with those institutional responsibilities.

Later activities

After leaving government, Karamanos continued to participate in feminist and political discussions. In 2024, she was described by the Universidad Austral de Chile as a member of the International Observatory of Feminist Policies of the International Feminist organization and participated in academic discussions on feminism and women's political participation.

In October 2024, Karamanos became the subject of media reports concerning the Caso Convenios investigation into the Fundación ProCultura. A Police of Investigations report had identified alleged transfers from her bank account to ProCultura, where she had worked in 2021. Karamanos denied making payments to the foundation and voluntarily provided banking records to prosecutors. She later gave a statement as a person under investigation in the case.

In April 2025, the Regional Prosecutor's Office of Coquimbo said that there were no grounds to impute a crime to Karamanos and that her procedural status had changed from person under investigation to witness.

On 24 December 2025, Karamanos criticized the planned restoration of the first lady role under President José Antonio Kast, whose wife María Pía Adriasola subsequently became first lady in 2026. Karamanos argued that the restoration represented a return to a tradition that was inconsistent with contemporary political institutions. Adriasola was subsequently identified by the Chilean Presidency as first lady during Kast's administration.

Personal life

Karamanos and Gabriel Boric began their relationship in 2019. They announced their separation on 16 November 2023, after approximately four years together.

References