Theodoros Roussopoulos

The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Theodoros Roussopoulos, is visiting New York, the headquarters of the United Nations, to strengthen cooperation between the organizations.

"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.

New Democracy MP Theodoros Roussopoulos has been elected as the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Roussopoulos is the 35th PACE president since 1949 and the first Greek national to hold this office. Presidents serve a one-year term, which may be renewed once. 

Figures close to former prime minister Costas Karamanlis have distanced themselves from recent controversial comments by ex-government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, nipping in the bud any speculation about internal disputes within New Democracy.