New Democracy (ND) deputy Constantinos Tasoulas was elected president of the parliament.

Besides ruling New Democracy, his candidacy was also supported by main opposition SYRIZA, and by KINAL, Greek Solution and MeRA25. Communist party KKE voted present.

Parliament should become the pillar supporting the country’s revival, and must reverse its discredited image, newly elected Parliament president Costas Tasoulas said on Thursday, adding that it is “a very difficult, mammoth goal, but we must not let it prove to be an ordeal like that of Sisyphus.”

In his first address to parliament as president, Tasoulas outlined his vision of how the new session of parliament should function. He pledged to guarantee freedom of opinion and expression for all deputies as well as the respect for parliamentary order, and stressed that “we are called upon to be useful and productive, obviously not agreeing to anything, but (working) through political disagreement towards a form of freedom.”

Emphasis was placed on “quality political substance in parliament”, stressing the importance of the restoration of the body’s prestige.

“Every newly elected president of Parliament is obliged to emphasize that he will continue or amend – and obviously expand – the multifaceted and on many fronts meaningful work of parliament at all levels,” Tasoulas said.

Plenary elects parliament’s VPs

Following the investiture of Constantinos Tasoulas as parliament president, the plenary voted for the following as the parliament’s eight vice presidents, in ranking order and with votes cast in a total of 300 MPs:

Nikitas Kaklamanis (290), Charalambos Athanassiou (212), Thanassis Bouras (273), all of ruling New Democracy; Dimitris Vitsas (282) of main opposition SYRIZA; Odysseas Constantinopoulos (214) of KINAL; Giorgos Lambroulis (273) of the Communist Party; Apostolos Avdelas (180) of Greek Solution; Sofia Sakorafa (243) of MeRA25.

The Communist Party said that it voted for all the MPs running for vice presidents except for Avdelas, for whom it declared its presence, which is the same stance it has as policy in all elections for parliament president.

Pavlopoulos congratulates Tasoulas

Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Thursday congratulated the newly elected president of the parliament Constantinos Tasoulas.

Speaking to Tasoulas by phone, Pavlopoulos noted Tasoulas’ election by exceptionally wide parliamentary majority, and wished him every success at exercising his duties.