PM Mitsotakis: ND proposes Constantine Tassoulas for President of Republic
“Today I am sharing with you my thoughts on the state's highest institution. And, at the same time, I am announcing New Democracy's proposal for the person who will be called upon to serve it. Because the citizens must know, judge the arguments and thus become involved in all the developments of public life," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated in a televised message to the Greek people on Wednesday.
“Today I am sharing with you my thoughts on the state's highest institution. And, at the same time, I am announcing New Democracy's proposal for the person who will be called upon to serve it. Because the citizens must know, judge the arguments and thus become involved in all the developments of public life," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated in a televised message to the Greek people on Wednesday.
"With a sense of responsibility, I announce that New Democracy's proposal for the next President of the Hellenic Republic will be Constantine Tassoulas, the current Parliament President and the country's third-highest ranking state official. His broad acceptance arises from the fact that he was elected President of the Hellenic Parliament three times with the greatest majority of the post-dicatorship era, with 283, 270 and 249 votes. His unifying spirit and combination of virtues have, I think, been proven by the faultless, by general admission, way in which he has so far handled the running of the Parliament in a very difficult party landscape," Mitsotakis said.
He also underlined that "given the fact that the President of Republic has a unifying mission, I believe, he or she should be voted only for one six-year term. So, the discussion for renewal of his or her term in office will not every now and then begin a round of controversy and the institution will remain aloof from party politics. It is a position we will introduce in parliament during the imminent revision of the Constitution".
Concluding his message, Mitsotakis thanked the current President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, saying that she had always held Greece's national dignity elevated and given to the institution a new and human example of a President. He called on all the parliamentary parties to evaluate Tassoulas' candidacy through one sole prism, that of prestige and experience, of knowledge and character, in order to pronounce him first citizen. "If the unbiased answer to these criteria is affirmative, I ask them to support him. It will be an option of unity and perspective for Greece," the prime minister concluded.