The 300 MPs elected to parliament in the May 21 general election were sworn in on Sunday in the presence of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. However, their term of office will be extremely short as the current parliament will be dissolved by presidential decree on Monday, May 29, 2023.
The deputies have already elected a presidium and a speaker in order to hold repeated elections on June 25 under the system of expanded proportional representation in order to form a government with an absolute majority.
In the elections on May 21, five political parties entered the parliament under the system of simple proportional representation, which received more than 3% of the votes from the total number of voters.
- New Democracy: 40.79%, 146 deputies
- SYRIZA-PA: 20.07%, 71 MPs
- PASOK-KINAL: 11.46%, 41 MPs
- Communist Party KKE: 7.23%, 26 deputies
- Hellenic Lisi: 4.45%, 16 deputies
All three leading parties have previously returned the ones issued to them by President Sakellaropoulou, saying that they are not in a position to form a government. This led to the creation of the second “two-day parliament” in recent Greek history, following the one that arose in the May 2012 elections.
After bringing oaths the deputies signed the corresponding protocol and received an information dossier, including, in particular, a copy of the constitution and the rules of procedure of the parliament.
The new parliament met again on Monday at 10:30, acting. The chairman began the meeting by reading letters from the chairmen of the parliamentary groups about the persons they propose for the position of the new speaker of parliament, since candidates are forbidden to nominate themselves.
The ND proposed the candidacy of the “incumbent” Speaker of the Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas (already confirmed). The Chairman of the Parliament is elected by roll call, and in order to be elected in the first round, he needs an absolute majority of votes, not less than 151 deputies.
After a short break, the House will meet again to elect vice presidents, deans, and secretaries, again by roll call. The New Democracy elects the first, second and third vice-presidents of the parliament, while the opposition parties elect the third, fourth and fifth.
After the election of the Presidium is completed, the new President of the Parliament will end the session, which will also mark the end of the first and only sitting of this Parliament.
President Sakellaropoulou will then issue a presidential decree to dissolve parliament on 21 May and call a general election on 25 June, as well as set a date for the swearing-in of the next parliament.
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