Panagiotis Rigas was born in Athens in 1961.

Since his younger years, he has been actively involved in social and political life, first through his trade union activities as a member of student political organisations of the Left and then as secretary of the Primary Education Teachers’ Association of Peristeri "Elli Alexiou".

He has worked as a Primary Education teacher in private and public schools, specialising in Special Needs Education.

He joined the Communist Youth of Greece and the Communist Party of Greece and was a member of the Central Council Office of the Communist Youth of Greece. He has been a member of the Coalition of the Left (SYN) party since its foundation and has served as a member of its Central Political Committee at several periods.

He has been a member of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party Central Committee since the party’s founding conference. He has also served as a member of the Political Secretariat and head of the organisation department. He was elected Secretary of the SYRIZA Central Committee in October 2015 and re-elected in October 2016, serving until August 2018.

With the cabinet reshuffle of 29 August 2018, he took office as Alternate Minister of National Defence.