Greece elects first female head of state

By Ana Mora Segura
Athens – Greece on Wednesday elected a woman head of state for the first time in the country’s history after the male-dominated parliament voted in favor of appointing well-known judge Katerina Sakellaropoulou as president.
She received the backing of 261 lawmakers in the Hellenic chamber, well above the necessary 200, with the support of almost all members of the conservative New Democracy government and the left-wing opposition Syriza and center-left Movement for Change.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “Greece enters a new era today, the country enters the third decades of the 21st century with a woman president.”
He described her as a “great personality” who united Greek people.
Although Sakellaropoulouwon a large majority, she couldn’t count on the vote of one of New Democracy’s best knowns faces, former prime minister Andonis Samaras, who was out of the country.
Several names had been mulled for the position of president by Greek media, including Samaras himself.
Parliament’s speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas will formally communicate Sakellaropoulou’s appointment and the new president is expected to take office on 13 March, a day after the first and only term of her predecessor Prokopis Pavlopoulos comes to an end.
In Greece, it is common for leftist governments to propose conservative presidential candidates and vice versa to project an image of institutional consensus.
While never openly campaigning for a political party, Sakellaropoulou is considered as progressive and was the first person to preside over the Greek Council of State after being appointed by the previous Syriza government in 2018.
In addition to the image of institutional cohesion, Mitsotakis achieves three things with his proposed head of state: weakening the narrative from the opposition that he is on the far-right, putting a conservative judge in charge of the Council of State and removing Pavlopoulos from office.
Outgoing presidents are usually chosen for a second term. This is the first time that a government has decided not to propose a candidate from its own ranks.
Sakellaropoulou’s election as president is an indicator of change in a deeply unequal country.
According to the European Union’s agency for equality, Greece has the dubious honor of leading the list in terms of gender disparity.
Only 18 percent of lawmakers and 9 percent of company executives are women, according to the research.
“The time has come for our country to choose a woman as president,” Mitsotakis said when he announced the candidacy. EFE-EPA
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