Veteran conservative MP Nikitas Kaklamanis has been elected the new speaker of Parliament with 247 votes. A total of 297 MPs participated in the vote, with 50 voting “present.”

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 will succeed 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.

Kaklamanis, 78, 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.

Source: Ekathimerini.com