Brussels, 19/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 February, the former Greek Minister of the Interior and member of the New Democracy party, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, was elected President of the Hellenic Republic by the Greek parliament. He won the minimum 180 votes required out of the 300 members of the Parliament.
The election of Pavlopoulos closes the chapter on an electoral process which began in December and which ended with the election failure of Stavros Dimas, who was put forward by the previous Samaras government. It was this failure which led to early general elections being called, which were won by the radical left-wing party Syriza.
On Tuesday, the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, chose Pavlopoulos, an MP from the ranks of the conservative New Democracy party, to replace the outgoing President Karolos Papoulias. For a time, the European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was the favourite. (Solenn Paulic)