On Thursday Jan. 15, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis nominated Kostas Tasoulas, who has been serving as the President of the Hellenic Parliament since 2019, as the candidate for the Presidency of the Hellenic Republic, in the upcoming elections.

His Profile and Political Career

Born in 1959, in Ioannina and Tasoulas studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He initially practiced as a lawyer in Athens, while during the period 1988–1989, he worked at a law firm in London.

Tasoulas began his political career in 1990 when he was elected as a municipal councilor in the Athens suburb of Kifisia. In the 1994 local elections, he ran for the position of mayor of Kifisia, a position he won and held until the end of his term in 1998.

His national political career started in the 2000 national elections, when he ran for the Ioannina constituency with the support of the New Democracy party. Tasoulas has since maintained his seat as an elected ND Member of the Greek Parliament representing Ioannina. It is worth noting that in the most recent 2019 elections Tasoulas came in first with 12,474 votes.

He also served as Deputy Parliamentary Spokesperson for New Democracy (2006–2007) and as Secretary of the New Democracy Parliamentary Group (2010).

Furthermore, he was appointed Deputy Minister of National Defense in the government of Kostas Karamanlis (2007–2009), while later he served as Minister of Culture and Sports in the government of Antonis Samaras (2014–2015).

During his tenure as Minister of Culture, he handled issues related to the Athens Concert Hall, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), and the Greek Film Centre.

In 2018, Mitsotakis as President of New Democracy appointed him as the party’s General Rapporteur for the Constitutional Revision.

President of the Hellenic Parliament

On July 18, 2019, Tasoulas was elected President of the Hellenic Parliament, securing a historic 283 votes, the highest ever recorded for such an election.

In May 2023, he was re-elected president of the short-lived 19th Parliament with 270 votes, while following the June 2023 elections, he was once again elected President of the Hellenic Parliament for the 20th Parliamentary Term with 250 votes.