Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis called on all opposition parties to "go beyond labels and divisions of previous years" and overwhelmingly support New Democracy's candidate for Greek president, Constantine Tassoulas, in an interview to ANT1 on Wednesday.
He said that in choosing Tassoulas, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had sought a politician who had the ability to unify and who had prestige, which the current Parliament president and presidential candidate had them.
"We are speaking of a Parliament president who was elected with a wide majority in 2019, and - much more important for me - was his election in 2023 in two successive processes, in May and June, on the basis of which deputies decided - 270 and 249 in the second and third process, respectively, on the president of Parliament," Marinakis said. Tassoulas is a person "who has never given cause to cast his standing, his reliability, his extensive knowledge, his unifying features to be doubted."
The candidate for Greek president will be judged more about how well he can achieve consensus and unification as president of the Hellenic Republic, in contrast to previous presidents of Parliament who were voted in on a wide majority but failed to promote consensus, the spokesman said.
Speaking of outgoing President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Marinakis said she and Mitsotakis had a very cordial discussion on her succession. "I want to clarify three things. First, Ms Sakellaropoulou was an excellent president, she honored the position. Second, I'd like to say that a person with political experience was selected because the demands in 2020 were different from those of 2025. Everyone should see what happened to the world - not just in Greece - these past 5 years. And the third thing I'd like to say, is that as we noted in the announcement, as the prime minister conveyed in his message, he plans to ask for a constitutional revision so the president of Greece has a single, six-year term," he explained.