Papoulias Elected President of Greece

09/02/2005

The Greek Parliament elected veteran Socialist politician and former foreign minister Karolos Papoulias as the country's next president. He will replace Costis Stephanopoulos in the post on 12 March.

(Athens News Agency, The New York Times - 09/02/05; AP, AFP, Athens News Agency, Macedonian Press Agency, The Hellenic Radio - 08/02/05)

Parliament elected Karolos Papoulias as the new president of Greece on Tuesday (8 February). [AFP]

An overwhelming majority of Greek lawmakers voted Tuesday (8 February) to elect veteran Socialist politician Karolos Papoulias as the country's next president. The former foreign minister and longtime member of parliament will be sworn in on 12 March, when the second five-year term of President Costis Stephanopoulos expires.

A founding member of the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), Papoulias, 75, was nominated to the post by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, the leader of Greece's conservative New Democracy (ND) party.

In an unprecedented show of consensus Tuesday night, 279 of the lawmakers in the 300-seat legislature voted in favour of Papoulias, who was the sole candidate for the presidency. This broke the previous 269-vote record set five years ago when Stephanopoulos was re-elected to his second term.

"I believe that consensus is an achievement for our political culture and a demand of Greek society on all important issues that concern our country," Papoulias said after Parliament Speaker Anna Psarouda-Benaki informed him of his election. Building a fairer and less selfish society, he said, is a collective goal that requires "political maturity and integrity, sensibility and sensitivity in public life".

"With respect for the opinions of all political parties and representatives of the Greek people, I express my sincere gratitude for this great honour, which I accept with a sense of responsibility," the president-elect said.

Addressing ND lawmakers Tuesday morning, Karamanlis praised Papoulias as a man of character and virtue, describing him also as an experienced and responsible, consensus-seeking politician, capable of co-operating with political forces and of avoiding political feuds.

"Papoulias's election will benefit all of the Greek people," the prime minister said, viewing it as a means to boost national unity.

Tuesday's vote will allow Karamanlis to complete his four-year term. Under the Greek Constitution, if parliament had failed to elect Stephanopoulos's successor in three rounds of voting, general elections would have to be held.

A lawyer by training, Papoulias was first elected a member of parliament in 1977 and has served as a lawmaker for more than 20 years. During his career, he has also served in different foreign ministry positions under PASOK-led governments, including as deputy foreign minister from 1981 to 1989 and as foreign minister from 1993 to 1996.

One of his greatest diplomatic accomplishments, according to The New York Times, was in 1995, when he played a key role in brokering the release of 257 UN workers held hostage by Bosnian Serb forces in Pale. He also pushed for confidence-building measures with Turkey.

Papoulias will be Greece's sixth president since the collapse of the military regime and the restoration of democracy in 1974. A December poll conducted by Athens-based Kappa Research agency showed that nearly 80 per cent of Greeks supported his presidential nomination.

Stephanopoulos will leave office with a popularity rating of over 93 per cent, described as a record in Greek politics.