President Katerina Sakellaropoulou meets with Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas in 2020.
It is true, as the Maximos Mansion asserts (and its loyal mouthpieces uncritically echo), that Konstantinos Tasoulas, who was nominated on Wednesday for president of the republic, was previously elected with an overwhelming majority as Parliament speaker. In 2023, he secured 249 votes, despite the blemishes of his prior tenure in this esteemed position. By comparison, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the incumbent president, was elected with 261 votes. Thus, if previous levels of consensus were the measure, the current president surpasses the nominee by a margin of 12 votes.
It is also true that Tasoulas’ 249 votes were an effort to broaden political consensus. Since the consensual election of the president of the republic became customary, the opposition has also extended its agreement to the election of the speaker of Parliament. This was the right course of action. However, the thread of consensus was abruptly severed on Wednesday for reasons as petty as internal party rivalries within New Democracy. The government’s communications strategy in this matter is particularly striking: It exploits the opposition’s consensus for the speaker of Parliament to justify its nonconsensual proposal for the presidency of the republic! Meanwhile, we are told by supposedly credible voices that the tradition of electing a president from the opposing political camp began with Karolos Papoulias, a former socialist foreign minister, in 2006 – as though Kostis Stephanopoulos, who served as president from 1995 to 2005, hailed from the communist camp.
The thread of consensus was abruptly severed on Wednesday for reasons as petty as internal party rivalries within New Democracy
Consensus, much like a tango, requires two willing partners. This is especially true for the kind of consensus the prime minister himself has promised. During the 2019 constitutional revision, he said in Parliament: “It is self-evident that the constitutional provision for the ultimate election of the president of the republic by a simple majority does not negate – I repeat, does not negate – the political responsibility of any given majority to seek a candidate capable of securing the broadest possible consensus. After all, this choice will always remain subject to the judgment of the citizens” (25.11.2019).
Given all of this, the opposition’s skepticism toward any proposal for a consensual constitutional amendment would be entirely justified – especially when such proposals are made hastily or as an afterthought. This, of course, refers to the prime minister’s Wednesday address. “Given the unifying mission of the president of the republic,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, “I believe that the president should be elected to one single six-year term. In this way, discussions about the renewal of their tenure would not repeatedly spark rounds of political confrontation. The institution would remain above partisan calculations. This is the position we intend to propose to Parliament during the upcoming constitutional revision” (15.1.2025).