Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou

A parliamentary delegation visited Council of State President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou at her office on 22 January to officially announce that Parliament has elected her as the next President of the Hellenic Republic, with 261 votes in the 300-member legislature.

Greece's parliament on Jan. 22 elected the first woman president in the country's history, a senior judge with an expertise in environmental and constitutional law.

A cross-party majority of 261 MPs voted in favour of 63-year-old Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, parliament chief Costas Tassoulas said.

The prime minister's decision to nominate Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou to serve as President of the Hellenic Republic did not startle those in the know.

For months most had known that Mr. Mitsotakis had singled out the chief justice of the Council of State and had included her in the pool of candidates for the highest office in the land.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has nominated Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, the first woman chief justice of the Council of State, to be the first woman president of the Hellenic Republic.

The surprise nomination was announced by the PM in a nationally televised address on the evening of 15 January.

Greece's supeme administrative court ruled today that the elimination by the former coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos of public servants' holiday bonuses is constitutional.

Two vice presidents of the Council of State on Wednesday quit the Union of Judges and Prosecutors, condemning last week's controversial decision by the president of the court, Nikos Sakellariou, to suspend a plenary session to consider appeals by television channels against the constitutionality of a recent government auction of TV licenses.

Two vice presidents of the Council of State have resigned from the Union of Judges and Prosecutors in the wake of a controversial decision by president of the court, Nikos Sakellariou, to suspend a plenary session last week to consider appeals by television channels against the constitutionality of a recent government auction of TV licenses.