From Kaisariani to Strasbourg

"Hello, Mr Roussopoulos. Congratulations!" said a customer from another table at the taverna in Ilioupoli, where Kathimerini met on Tuesday with the first Greek politician to be unanimously elected the 35th president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The customer was not the only one to congratulate him. At journalist and politician Dimitris Tsiodras' book launch on Monday evening ("European Integration: The Adventures of a Vision"), where Roussopoulos was a speaker, he received kudos from hundreds of people for his new position, both from famous and not-so-famous people in attendance.

In 2008, Roussopoulos served as state minister and government spokesperson for the New Democracy government under Kostas Karamanlis. He was criticized for his alleged role in a scandal involving a property swap between the Vatopedi Monastery in the monastic...