First woman president of the Hellenic Republic takes office

Katerina Sakellaropoulos was sworn in today as president of the Hellenic Republic.

The moderate, progressive, rights-oriented jurist is the first woman to hold the country's highest office and was until her election in parliament serving as president (again the first woman) of the Council of State, the country's supreme administrative court.

As president she has a largely ceremonial role and is required to sign executive order drafted by the government, but the weight of the office consists in the president's role as a focal point of national unity at a moment when Greeks are exceptionally concerned about multiple vital threats.

She is also a great fan of US Supreme Court Justice Rith Bader Ginsberg, whose image graced a mug on her Council of State office desk.

Sakellaropoulos is a assuming office even as Greece is struggling with three major battles - managing the coronavirus pandemic, dealing with Turkey's bellicose actions in the Evros border region and the Aegean, and re-staring the Greek economy with domestic and foreign direct investment.

In accord with the Constitution Sakellaropoulou took a religious oath of office which was administered by Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece, who has been grappling with how much to restrict services and the offering of Holy Communion.

The incoming president touched upon the major challenges that Greece is and will be dealing with during her five-year term of office.

Sakellaropoulou praised outgoing president Prokopis Pavlopoulos' dexterous handling of intense crisis-era political battles and particularly his diplomatic moves to avert a Grexit in July, 2015, when then PM Alexis Tsipras called a disastrous referendum on whether to accept Greece's new bailout deal offered by creditors....