Veteran MP of conservative New Democracy, Nikitas Kaklamanis, has been elected the new speaker of the Greek Parliament with 247 votes. A total of 297 MPs out of 300 in total participated in the vote, with 50 voting “present.”
78-year-old Nikitas Kaklamanis who enjoys the respect of the broader political spectrum but also the society was elected with the votes of New Democracy, PASOK, SYRIZA, Greek Solution Spartiates and the majority of Independent MPs.
After the announcement of the results, Kaklamanis addressed the House as the newly elected speaker of Parliament.
“Your vote has once again united Parliament, almost from end to end,” he said, before thanking Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, his fellow MPs, and his voters.
“My entire political journey is sealed today, completing a cycle I have lived and acted upon, guided by an unwavering code of values,” he said.
Kaklamanis succeeds Konstantinos Tasoulas, who stepped down from the position to be elected as the new president of the republic. Tasoulas’ five-year term will begin in March, but he has already given up his seat.
78-year-old Nikitas Kaklamanis, a medical doctor by profession, has been deputy speaker since 2015. First elected in 1990, he also served in the European Parliament from 1994-1999, re-entered the Greek Parliament in 2000 and stepped down in 2006 to run, successfully, for mayor of Athens. Defeated in 2010, he entered Parliament for a third time in 2012 and has remained an MP since.