Top judge Katerina Sakellaropoulou elected as Greece’s first woman president
- Sakellaropoulou, a four-decade justice veteran, has since 2018 headed the Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court
- She will take over from Prokopios Pavlopoulos, whose five-year term ends in March
The conservative party nominee was backed by opposition parties, including the leftist Syriza party which lost power in an election last July. She was backed by 261 MPs in the 300-member parliament.
Sakellaropoulou will take over from Prokopios Pavlopoulos, whose five-year term ends in March.
“The time has come for Greece to open up to the future,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said earlier this month, as he submitted Sakellaropoulou’s name for Wednesday’s parliamentary vote.
Sakellaropoulou, a four-decade justice veteran, has since 2018 headed the Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court, where she was again the first woman to occupy the post.
The daughter of a Supreme Court judge, Sakellaropoulou completed postgraduate studies at Paris’ Sorbonne university and is an expert in constitutional and environmental law.