Greece Elects First Female President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou

Greece’s parliament has voted in her first female president in the country’s history.

According to a report monitored by Naija News, from Al Jazeera News, the cross-party majority of 261 MPs voted in favor of the 63-year-old Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, a senior judge with an expertise in environmental and constitutional law.

“Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou has been elected president of the republic,” Tassoulas announced.

Ekaterini #Sakellaropoulou elected new President of Hellenic President – w 261/300 votes-will succeed Pr. Pavlopoulos on March 13!
☑️ 8th president after democracy was restored in GR,1974
☑️ 13th in the history of the Hellenic Republic
☑️ 1st woman elected Greek president pic.twitter.com/BxjAK5yF2X

— Christos G Failadis (@xfailadis) January 22, 2020

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.

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.