(Adnkronos) – The Greek Parliament has elected – with 160 votes in favor out of 300 – 65-year-old Constantine Tasoulas, a member of New Democracy (ND), the conservative party to which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also belongs, as the new President of the Republic. Tasoulas succeeds Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who five years ago became the first woman to hold this office in Greece and whose term expires in mid-March.
Tasoulas’ election took place on the fourth ballot. In the previous three rounds, according to the Greek Constitution, a majority of 200 votes in Parliament was required to be elected.
Born on July 17, 1959 in Ioannina, a city in northwestern Greece, a lawyer, Tasoulas was a member of Parliament and secretary general of ND before being elected president of Parliament three times. The new president also held the roles of deputy minister of defense (2007-2009) and minister of culture and sport (2014-2015) at the height of the Greek financial crisis. At the Ministry of Culture, he launched an international campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, which are housed in the British Museum in London.
