SYRIZA MP Nikos Voutsis was elected the new Greek Parliament President on Sunday morning.
181 out of 300 MPs voted in favor of Voutsis taking over the 17th Greek Parliament’s reigns. Following the confirmation of his appointment the SYRIZA MP addressed the parliament, noting that it will be open to Greek citizens.
Voutsis served as the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction Minister during the first SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government from January until July.
As part of protocol and tradition, the parliament’s presidency was handed over to Voutsis by former parliament president Zoi Konstantopoulou. Though this is often an uneventful process, Konstantopoulou’s conflict with her former party; SYRIZA, and her vocal opposition to the bailout brought a bit more tension to the turnover of position, as the former parliamentary president published a report about the current public debt.
“The completion of my tenure as president of the 16th parliament that was considered an obstacle for the implementation of the bailout is a unique honor. It is a unique honor for me that I did not give up the keys and the stamp of the parliament to the creditors,” Konstantopoulou said.
She proceeded to hand over to Voutsis the results of the Truth Committee on the Public Debt, a committee she created, asking Voutsis to continue its work along with the operations of other committees investigating political scandals in the country and the committee’s work on the issue of German reparations to Greece.
“The government will take under consideration all the document and items on the debt issue to secure a better result for our country,” Voutsis said after Konstantopoulous’s remarks.
The Greek Parliament also elected the following Vice Presidents:
First Vice President Anastasios Kourakis
Second Vice President: Georgios Varemenos
Third Vice President: Anastasia Christodoulopoulou
Fourth Vice President: Nikitas Kaklamanis,
Sixth Vice President: Dhmhtrios Kremastinos
Seventh Vice President: Georgios Lamproulis
The new Greek parliament will not have a fifth vice-president as the candidate that the Golden Dawn party nominated did not gather the minimum requirement of 75 votes that is necessary for a nominee’s appointment in to a vice presidential seat.
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