The election of a top-level officer in Greece is typically the starting point of a scandal. Even in times of political calmness, the election of the President has “surprises” and an intense, yet pointless behind-the-scenes dealings!

The first (political) President K. Tsatsos will be remembered in history as the President who was afraid to call Karamanlis if he had not be previously found out about his mood from Molyviatis.

Mr. Tsatsos had been elected President from Parliament under the (secret) condition that he resigned whenever Mr. Karamanlis asked him to. Ultimately he completed his five-year term, because Mr. Karamanlis wanted to be elected President after he managed to get Greece into the European Union. That all happened in May 1980.

In 1985 everyone expected Karamanlis to be reelected, but Andreas Papandreou surprised everyone (include himself!) and appointed the Supreme Court Judge Chr. Sartzetakis as President.

After Sartzetakis’ term, Karamanlis returned for a second term, followed by known right-winger K. Stephanopoulos, who was elected by PASOK MPs and the Antonis Samaras’ scant parliamentary group, who proposed Mr. Stephanopoulos’ candidacy to avoid early elections. The years went by and Mr. Stephanopoulos was deemed a good President, so he was elected for a second term.

History repeats itself later, when the younger Karamanlis (nephew of the New Democracy founder) proposes Karolos Papoulias, a well-known PASOK officer, for the position. In each case, the Prime Minister at the time was trying to avoid early elections.

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The time of truth is nearing. The current Parliament must elect a new President in a few months. In order to elect a President, a 180 vote majority is needed, which seems unlikely to happen. SYRIZA, after all, is looking forward to the Samaras administration collapsing when it will not be able to amass the necessary 180 votes, thus forcing elections. Mr. Samaras believes that he can propose a Presidential candidate that everyone will back in order to avoid early elections… The question is whether Greece needs a President to live up to his name or to a “tool” for political developments!

Stavros P. Psycharis

Originally published in the Sunday print edition