On Wednesday 12th February, the former Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas was elected the new President of the Republic in a plenary session of the Parliament with a total of 160 votes. The result was as predicted for a candidate proposed by the Government but not supported by most of the opposition parties.

The election process required a diminishing majority in successive votes: 200 votes on 25th January, 200 votes on 31st January, 180 votes on 6th February, 151 votes on 12th February, and a relative majority on 18th February. With Nea Dimokratia having a majority of 156 seats in the Parliament as of December 2024, it was clear that without substantial opposition support, Mr Tasoulas would not win until the 4th round of voting, and that is what happened. In the event, he won 160 votes on 25th and 31st January, 156 on 6th February and 160 again on 12th February.

Of the candidates supported by other parties, Tasos Giannitsis received 34 votes in the fourth round, Louka Katseli 29 and Konstantinos Kyriakou 14. Thirty-nine MPs voted “present” – an effective abstention – while 24 MPs absented themselves in protest at Mr Tasoulas’s candidacy.

On being informed of his successful candidacy by the new Speaker Nikitas Kaklamanis, Mr Tasoulas said that he would be a “guarantor of national unity”. The post, he said, “is for me a very high honour, but chiefly a deep and most valued responsibility,” and he offered “my sincere thanks for my appointment to the position of President of the Republic, in accordance with the Constitution, to the the national Representation which I have had the honour to serve as a member for the past 25 years.”

“I would like to warmly congratulate Konstantinos Tasoulas, whom I am sure will fulfil his high role as a symbol of national unity,” the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in response to the news, while the outgoing President Katerina Sakellaropoulou contacted Mr Tasoulas to congratulate him on his election, sending her good wishes for every success in the exercise of his duties. The swearing-in of the new President before MPs is scheduled to take place on 13th March when the term of the current President ends.
(Haniotika Nea, 13/02/25)

Biography of the new President
A native of Epirus with long experience of politics and local government, Konstantinos Tasoulas was elected MP for Ioannina with Nea Dimokratia in the year 2000, becoming Parliamentary Speaker in 2019, a position to which he was re-elected twice. Born in Ioannina in 1959, he is married with two children

Profession
A member of the Athens Bar Association, he studied at the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and during the period 1988-89 he worked at a law firm in London on a scholarship from the British Council.

Parliamentary activities
He entered Parliament for the first time in the year 2000, when he was elected MP for Ioannina with Nea Dimokratia. He was re-elected in the Parliamentary elections of 2004, 2007, 2009, 2012 (twice), 2015 (twice), 2019 and 2023 (twice).
In 2006 the Prime Minister (Konstantinos Karamanlis) appointed him deputy Parliamentary Spokesman of Nea Dimokratia
In 2007 he was appointed deputy minister of National Defence.
In February 2010 he was elected General Secretary of the Parliamentary Group of Nea Dimokratia.
In 2014 he was appointed minister of Culture and Sports in the government of Antonis Samaras, a post which he held until January 2015.
In 2019 he was elected Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament. He was re-elected Speaker in May 2023, and again in July of the same year.

Political/social activities
He was private secretary to the late Evangelos Averof-Tositsas, who was Honorary President of ND from 1981 to 1990, and was special adviser to the ministries of National Economy, Trade and Agriculture (1989-1990).
He served as Chairman of the national Export Promotion Organisation from 1990 to 1993.
He was elected Municipal Councillor to the Municipality of Kifissia in 1990.
In 1994 he was elected Mayor of Kifissia, a position he held from January 1995 to December 1998.
In June 2013 he was appointed President of the Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy.
(www.ertnews.gr)