The Greek parliament today elected the 63-year-old lawyer Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou as the new president for the next five years.
This is the first time that a woman has taken over the post. In a roll call vote, 261 MPs voted for Sakellaropoulou, 33 abstained, according to the Parliamentary Bureau. For the election, 200 votes of the parliament with 300 seats were necessary. There was no opposing candidate.
Sakellaropoulou was previously the judge and president of the highest administrative court in Greece. After studying law in Athens, she became a judge.
Great symbolism
Sakellaropoulou’s term begins on March 13. The Greek head of state has purely representative functions, but the election of the judge as president in a country where women are still strongly discriminated against is of great symbolic value.
Sakellaropoulou has experience with such premieres: in October 2018, she became the first woman in the history of the country to become President of the State Council – the constitutional and supreme administrative courts in Greece.
