Greek Lawmakers Elect Country’s First Female Head of State

(Bloomberg) --

Greek lawmakers elected Wednesday Aikaterini Sakellaropoulou as the country’s next president of the republic after only a single round of voting.

While the role is largely ceremonial, it’s the first time that a woman has been elected to the position.

Sakellaropoulou’s election signals Greece’s progression into a new era, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said after the vote. “I’m happy we can agree on the big issues,” he said, commenting on the wide support that Sakellaropoulou secured in parliament.

The 63-year-old president of the council of state, Greece’s highest court, and also the first woman in that post, got 261 votes, more than the 200 needed in Greece’s 300-seat parliament to be elected after a first ballot.

Her nomination for the post by the Greek premier “honors both justice and the modern Greek woman,” Sakellaropoulou said after Mitsotakis announced his nominee last week.

Sakellaropoulou will assume her new duties in March when the term of current President Prokopios Pavlopoulos comes to en end.

Read More: Greece’s Top Judge Set to Be Country’s First Woman President

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.