The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic, commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Republic, is the head of state of Greece. The president is elected by the Hellenic Parliament; the role has been mainly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform. The office was formally established by the Constitution of Greece in 1975, but has antecedents in the Second Hellenic Republic of 1924–1935 and the Greek junta in 1973–1974 which predated the transition to the current Third Hellenic Republic. The incumbent, since 13 March 2020, is Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Greece since 16 February 2024. In July 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, head of the re-elected New Democracy party, announced his government's intention to legalise same-sex marriage. Its legalisation was part of an action plan for LGBT equality, which was drafted by a special committee appointed by Mitsotakis in 2021. Legislation was introduced to the Hellenic Parliament on 1 February 2024 and passed on 15 February by 176 votes to 76. The bill was signed into law by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and took effect upon publication in the Government Gazette on 16 February. Greece was the 16th member state of the European Union, the 21st country in Europe and the 36th in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis is a Greek politician currently serving as the prime minister of Greece since July 2019, except for a month between May and June 2023. Mitsotakis has been president of the New Democracy party since 2016. He is generally associated with the centre-right, espousing economically liberal policies.
Prokopios "Prokopis" Pavlopoulos is a Greek retired politician, who served as the president of Greece from 2015 to 2020. A member of New Democracy, he previously was Minister of the Interior from 2004 to 2009. He was succeeded by Katerina Sakellaropoulou on 13 March 2020, who became the first woman to serve as President of Greece.
The Third Hellenic Republic is the period in modern Greek history that stretches from 1974, with the fall of the Greek military junta and the final confirmation of the abolishment of the Greek monarchy, to the present day.
The Leader of the Official Opposition is the politician who leads the biggest opposition party in Greece.
Indirect presidential elections were held in Greece in December 2014 and February 2015 for the succession to Karolos Papoulias as President of the Hellenic Republic. The candidate of the ND–PASOK government, Stavros Dimas, failed to secure the required majority of MPs of the Hellenic Parliament in the first three rounds of voting in December. According to the provisions of the Constitution of Greece, a snap election was held on 25 January 2015, which was won by the left-wing Syriza party. Following the convening of the new Parliament, the presidential election resumed. On 18 February 2015, veteran ND politician Prokopis Pavlopoulos, backed by the Syriza-ANEL coalition government, was elected with 233 votes.
Nikos Androulakis is a Greek politician who serves as president of the PASOK – Movement for Change since 2021. He served also as Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2023.
The PASOK – Movement for Change is a political alliance in Greece, which was founded in March 2018, initially as "Movement for Change", mainly affiliated with the centre-left of the political spectrum. It includes the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and Movement of Democratic Socialists (KIDISO).
Fotini "Fofi" Gennimata was a Greek politician who served as president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) from 2015 to 2021. During her tenure as party leader, she also co-founded and led the Democratic Alignment and the Movement for Change, two successive political alliances of centre-left parties formed around PASOK. She was the daughter of Georgios Gennimatas, a high-profile government minister during the PASOK administrations of the 1980s and 1990s.
The 2015–16 New Democracy leadership election refers to the two-round election to determine the next president of New Democracy, after the resignation of Antonis Samaras on 5 July 2015. The first round was held on 20 December 2015 and the second round was held on 10 January 2016. Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected as the new president.
Events in the year 2016 in Greece.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 21 May 2023. All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament were contested. They were the first elections since 1990 not to be held under a bonus seats system, due to amendments to the electoral law made in 2016. Instead, a purely proportional system was used.
Events in the year 2019 in Greece.
An indirect presidential election were held in Greece on Wednesday 22 January 2020 for the President of the Hellenic Republic. Incumbent President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who was elected by the Hellenic Parliament on 18 February 2015, was eligible for re-election but was not suggested by the government.
Events in the year 2020 in Greece.
Katerina Sakellaropoulou is a Greek judge who has been the president of Greece since 13 March 2020. She was elected by the Hellenic Parliament to succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos on 22 January 2020. Prior to her election as president, Sakellaropoulou served as president of the Council of State, the highest administrative court of Greece. She is the country's first female president.
Events in the year 2021 in Greece.
The 2022 Greek surveillance scandal, sometimes called Predatorgate or Greek Watergate, refers to the prolonged and en masse monitoring of individuals prominent in the Greek political scene, along with multiple public persons, including the president of the social democratic party, PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, the journalists Thanassis Koukakis and Stavros Michaloudis, as well as members of the government and close affiliates of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among others, via the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP) or the Predator spyware.