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GREECE-POLITICS-PRESIDENT-GENDER LEAD
Greece elects first woman president
ATHENS, Jan 22, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Greece’s parliament on Wednesday elected
the first woman president in the country’s history, a senior judge with an
expertise in environmental and constitutional law.
A cross-party majority of 261 of the 294 MPs voted in favour of 63-year-
old Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, parliament chief Costas Tassoulas said.
“Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou has been elected president of the republic,”
Tassoulas said.
The new president, until now the head of Greece’s top administrative
court, the Council of State, will take her oath of office on March 13, he
added.
She will take over from Prokopis Pavlopoulos, whose five-year term ends in
March.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who personally nominated
Sakellaropoulou, called her an “outstanding” judge whose candidacy “unites
all Greeks.”
The daughter of a Supreme Court judge, Sakellaropoulou completed
postgraduate studies at Paris’s Sorbonne university.
She was also the first woman to head the Council of State.
Although the president is nominally the head of the Greek state and
commander-in-chief, the post is largely ceremonial.
Greek presidents confirm governments and laws and technically have the
power to declare war, but only in conjunction with the government.
Backed by the main opposition leftist Syriza and socialist KINAL parties,
Sakellaropoulou’s candidacy secured one of the highest vote counts in
parliament history.
Mitsotakis had emphasised that the selection breaks with tradition not
only because Sakellaropoulou is female, but also because she is not a member
of a political party.
Past presidents have often been senior party figures, such as former
ministers.
Sakellaropoulou’s nomination was welcomed by some commentators as a
consensus candidate during a difficult time for Greek foreign policy, amid
ongoing tension with Turkey over energy exploration, Aegean territorial
rights and migration.
“The time has come for Greece to open up to the future,” Mitsotakis said
earlier this month, as he submitted Sakellaropoulou’s name for the
parliamentary vote.
When Mitsotakis became prime minister in July, he was criticised for
appointing just a handful of women in his cabinet.
A 2017 Eurobarometer poll found 63 percent of Greeks thought gender
equality had been achieved in politics, 69 percent at work and 61 percent in
leadership positions.
But Eurostat figures from the same year show a pay gap between men and
women in Greece of more than 12 percent in average gross hourly earnings.
Unemployment is also higher among women, with one in five jobless
according to the latest official figures.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1622 hrs