Konstantinos Tasoulas

The speech by new House speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas underscored the desire for a different style of political discourse, beyond statements and counter-statements, beyond instant reactions on social media, unconditional attacks against political opponents, told-you-so quips and all such byproducts of the crisis.

Suddenly an unexpected sense of political civilisation appears to be prevailing, at least in Parliament.

After the polarised political climate of the political campaign, with its divisive cries, one saw a climate of fundamental consensus in the election of Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas.

Veteran New Democracy MP (representing the district of Ioannina) Konstantinos Tasoulas has been elected Parliament Speaker with an unprecedented 283 votes in the 300-seat legislature.

Tasoulas was supported by five of the legislature's six parties (New Democracy, SYRIZA, Movement for Change, Elliniki Lysi, and MeRa 25).

Christos Staikouras, a former alternate economy minister under ND PM Antonis Samaras, will be Greece's new finance minister in the cabinet of incoming PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which was announced late this afternoon, less than 24 hours afte Mitsotakis' landslide victory, and veteran connservative MP Nilos Dendias will be Greece's new foreign minister.

The Parliament's arms committee decided on Friday to retract its previous approvals for the controversial sale of missiles and bombs to Saudi Arabia. 

The decision, which is nonbinding, was taken after an initiative by ruling SYRIZA in what was seen as a bid to extract the coalition government from an arms deal that opposition New Democracy has dubbed a "scandal."