Tassoulas elected as Greece's new president

Greek lawmakers on Wednesday elected a close ally of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as the country's president and head of state.

Constantine Tassoulas, 65, the former chief of parliament, replaces outgoing President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a former senior judge, for a five-year term.

In Greece the post of the head of state is largely ceremonial, with candidates nominated by the premier.

Tassoulas had been head of parliament since Mitsotakis was elected in 2019 and is considered close to the conservative New Democracy party's nationalist wing.

Accepting the nomination last month, he called it a "paramount honor and responsibility".

The lawyer and father of two is a political veteran, first elected as a lawmaker in 2000 and having since served as culture minister, deputy defense minister and party general secretary in parliament.

But it took four rounds of voting to elect Tassoulas, with the ruling New Democracy party unable to deliver the support of the 200 MPs originally needed.

Mitsotakis last month praised Tassoulas's "integrity" and "deep knowledge of Greek history".

As mayor of the wealthy Athens suburb of Kifissia, Tassoulas had been accused of attempted blackmail by a land developer. He was already a lawmaker by the time a lawsuit was filed in 2001, and parliament refused to lift his immunity. He has called the charges politically motivated.

Sakellaropoulou, elected in 2020, was Greece's first woman president.