The Greek parliament elected a female president of the Republic on Wednesday for the first time in the country's history. The woman in question is an experienced judge and a specialist in environmental law.
Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, 63, the current president of the Council of State won the votes of 261 MPs out of 300 from the first round of the ballot.
She had been proposed last week by the conservative prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos, whose mandate runs out in March.
In spite of a Greek legislative array that envisages a mandatory quota of 40% women, women are seldom elected. The present government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis includes only two female ministers, like that of his left-wing predecessor Alexis Tsipras.
The Brussels Times
