Greece’s Parliament on Wednesday voted to appoint the first woman head of state in the country’s nearly 200 years as a modern state, with Council of State (CoS) President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou receiving 261 votes out of a possible 300, in a televised roll-calll process.
Sakellaropoulou will succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who after reaching the end of a four-year term was not re-nominated by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The post of president of the republic is wholly ceremonial, although entailing increased political symbolism. Following the last constitutional revision, in fact, electing a new president by Parliament was detached from the prospect of a failure to elect causing a snap election – as was the case in January 2015.
