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This is certainly symbolic for Greece. As we know our country has been surrounded by countries where women struggle for women’s rights and just 18% of women hold parliament roles in comparison to our European friends where most have an amount of 30%
Katerina Sakellaropoulou is the start of a new era not only for Greece but for other countries that would traditionally have a male in this position.
No woman has held the post in the nearly 200 years since Greece proclaimed independence. “Today a window to the future has opened, our country enters the third decade of the 21st century with more optimism” said the prime minister of Greece,Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis. After 261 Members of Parliament in the 300-seated House voted in favour of the French-educated jurist to take on the role, a clean sweep for the first and now final round.
Signalling her determination to act as a moral compass in a society often driven by political division, and singling out the climate emergency among the global challenges facing the country, she told the delegation: “I look forward to a society which respects rights … heals the wounds of the past and looks with optimism at the future.”
Her election was immediately applauded by the EU commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, in a tweet praising Greece for “moving ahead into a new era of equality”.
Taking Oath.
An expert in environmental and constitutional law, Sakellaropoulou will take the oath of office on 13 March, when she will formally succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a former conservative minister who has held the largely ceremonial position for the past five years.
Biography
Sakellaropoulou was born in Thessalonica. Her family comes from Stavroupoli, Xanthi. She studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed her postgraduate studies at public law at Paris II University. In the mid-1980s, she was admitted to the Council of State and she was promoted to counsellor on 2000. On October 2015 she was appointed as the vice president of the Council of State, while on October 2018 she was unanimously elected to the post of the president of Council.
She has been a member of the Association of Judiciary Functionaries of the Council of State. She has held many posts on the association: general secretary (1985-1986), vice-president (2006-2008) and president (1993-1995, 2000-2001).
The French-educated judge broke the mould when she was elevated as the first woman to the helm of the country’s highest court in October 2018. Sakellaropoulou’s sensitivity to civil liberties, ecological issues and minority and refugee’s rights, prompted the then left-wing Syriza administration to propel her to the post.
She publishes regularly in academic journals. She has also contributed to the book “Financial crisis and environmental protection on the case law of the Council of State” (Greek: Οικονομική κρίση και προστασία του περιβάλλοντος στη νομολογία του Συμβουλίου της Επικρατείας), Papazisis Publications
source https://el.wikipedia.org/wik
