Greek PM Chooses Parliament Speaker as Ruling Party’s Presidential Candidate
Source: Balkan Insight
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday announced speaker of parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas as the candidate of his centre-right New Democracy party for the post of Greek president. Mitsotakis said he had been looking for a person with “wide acceptance”.
“His wide acceptance stems from the fact that he was elected president of parliament three times with the strongest majority in the post-coup period [since 1974]: with 283, 270, and 249 votes. His unifying spirit and synthetic virtues have I think been proven by the impeccable way… in which he has conducted the work of parliament so far in a very difficult party landscape,” Mitsotakis said.
The Greek president is elected by lawmakers in parliament, and the role is largely ceremonial. The current incumbent is Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Ruling party candidate Tasoulas, 55, was born in Ioannina, Epirus, studied law and was first elected as an MP in Ioannina for New Democracy in 2000. In 2007, he was appointed deputy minister of defence, and in 2014, minister of culture and sports. In 2019, he was elected speaker of parliament. He was re-elected in May and July 2023.
The left-wing SYRIZA opposition party has meanwhile chosen Louka Katseli, 72, an academic and politician as its candidate for the post. Katseli was elected as an MP in 2007 for the centre-left PASOK party. She has served as minister of the economy, competitiveness and shipping, as well as minister of labour and social insurance.
Opposition PASOK party leader, Nikos Androulakis, told SKAI radio that the next president should not come from the current government. Party spokesperson Kostas Tsoukalas told public broadcaster ERT that PASOK will shortly propose its own candidate.
“[The president] must be able to consolidate national unity, guarantee institutional normality and also highlight the balance of the political system. But here it looks like a very narrow party choice. We have said from the beginning that we are not going to agree to a narrow party choice,” Tsoukalas said.
Greek presidents are elected for a five-year term at a special parliamentary session convened by the speaker at least a month before the term of the current president ends. Media have suggested that the election will take place by around February 13.
A total of 200 votes in the 300-seat parliament are required for the election of the new president. The ruling New Democracy party has 158 seats.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
