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Greek MPs elect youngest ever Parliament Speaker with record votes

Xinhua, February 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek legislators elected on Friday the youngest ever Parliament Speaker in Greece with a record 235 votes in the 300 member strong assembly with 298 MPs participating in the procedure.

Ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party deputy Zoi Konstantopoulou, 38 years old, broke the previous record held by her conservative predeccesor Evangelos Meimarakis who was elected in June 2012 with 223 votes.

Konstantopoulou was backed by the two-partite coalition government of SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks who jointly hold 162 seats in the chamber, as well as by opposition parties.

She is the second woman who was elected to the post after conservative Anna Psarouda Benakis who was elected in 2004 and served two terms until 2009.

Konstantopoulou is a lawyer and daughter of Nikos Konstantopoulos, former leader of SYRIZA (1993-2004). She was first elected to parliament in the May 2012 elections.

Following the election of the Parliament Speaker and the Vice Presidents of the chamber later on Friday the next major event for the parliament which emerged from the Jan. 25 elections was scheduled for Sunday when the new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and cabinet ministers will start making the government's policy statements.

The confidence vote to the government was rescheduled for Tuesday midnight. Endit