Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has nominated Konstantinos Tasoulas, the current Speaker of Parliament, as President of the country.
On 13 March, the term of the current president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expires. The first vote on Tasoulas' candidacy will be held on 25 January, the newspaper reported. "Kathimerini". He will have to get the support of MPs (300 in total in the Greek parliament) in a complex procedure of several votes. In the first two, a majority of 200 MPs is needed. In the third and fourth, 180 and 151 respectively. In the fifth vote, the candidate with the most votes wins.
The politician has now been elected President of the Greek Parliament three times with the largest majority in the post-independence period: 283, 270 and 249 votes.
"His unifying spirit and his qualities as a mediator have, in my view, been proven by the impeccable way in which he has so far conducted the business of parliament in a very difficult party environment," the prime minister said in his address.
He thanked Sakellaropoulou for her tenure, saying she had introduced a "new, human model of governance" to the institution. Mitsotakis noted, however, that "the country needs a president with long experience in public life and with clear political characteristics".
Regarding the choice of a man from the New Democracy political family, the prime minister noted that broad support for him would inspire confidence in society.
"Neither the different backgrounds of the president and the prime minister guarantee constitutional balance, nor their political coincidence by definition creates institutional risk", Mitsotakis said.
At the same time, he expressed the view that the president should be elected for a single six-year term as this would "keep the institution away from partisan considerations". | BGNES
