The President of the Hellenic Parliament ( el, Πρόεδρος της Βουλής των Ελλήνων) is the presiding officer of the
Parliament of Greece
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the Hel ...
. The president's term coincides with the term of the assembly, and is chosen by a vote during the opening session, after each legislative election. Following is a list of speakers of the Hellenic Parliament or other national legislative bodies such as the
Greek Senate
The Greek Senate ( el, Γερουσία, '' Gerousia'') was the upper chamber of the parliament in Greece, extant several times in the country's history.
Local senates during the War of Independence
During the early stages of the Greek War of ...
, from the time of the
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
till present. The
official order of precedence ranks the speaker of the Hellenic Parliament in the 3rd position, after the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.
The incumbent speaker is
Konstantinos Tasoulas
Konstantinos Tasoulas ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Τασούλας; born 17 July 1959, Ioannina, Greece) is a Greek politician serving as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament from 18 July 2019. He has also served as Minister of Culture and Spo ...
of
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
.
Constitutional powers
According to the
Constitution of Greece
The Constitution of Greece ( el, Σύνταγμα της Ελλάδας, Syntagma tis Elladas) was created by the Fifth Revisionary Parliament of the Hellenes in 1974, after the fall of the Greek military junta and the start of the Third Hellen ...
, in the event of a temporary absence of the
president of the Hellenic Republic
The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρόεδρος της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Próedros tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Rep ...
on account of illness, travel abroad or similar circumstances, the speaker of the parliament serves as acting president, and exercises the powers of the state president until the president resumes his functions, and in the event that the presidency falls vacant as a result of death or resignation or for any other reason, until the election of a new president.
List of speakers
Provisional government of the War of Independence, 1821–1827
This includes the presidents of the various
Greek National Assemblies
The Greek national assemblies ( el, Εθνοσυνελεύσεις) are representative bodies of the Greek people. During and in the direct aftermath of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), the name was used for the insurgents' proto-parli ...
and the Legislative Corps (Βουλευτικό) during the
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
.
:''Note: all dates are
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
''
First Hellenic Republic
The First Hellenic Republic ( grc-gre, Αʹ Ελληνική Δημοκρατία) was the provisional Greek state during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. From 1822 until 1827, it was known as the Provisional Administra ...
, 1827–1832
This includes the presidents of the National Assemblies and the various legislative bodies under Governor
Ioannis Kapodistrias
Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias (10 or 11 February 1776 – 9 October 1831), sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias ( el, Κόμης Ιωάννης Αντώνιος Καποδίστριας, Komis Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias; russian: ...
and his successors.
:''Note: all dates are
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
''
;Presidents of the National Assemblies and the Parliament (Βουλή)
;Presidents of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
(Γερουσία)
Reign of King Otto, 1843–1862
When
King Otto arrived in Greece, he was still a
minor
Minor may refer to:
* Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities.
** A person who has not reached the age of majority
* Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education
Music theory
*Minor chord
** Barb ...
, and until 1835 the country was governed by a
regency council
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...
. The regents ignored the so-called "" voted by the
Fifth National Assembly, and when Otto assumed full powers, he ruled as an
absolute monarch
Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism (European history), Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute pow ...
. The only "parliamentary" body was the 20-member
Council of State
A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...
(Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας), but its role was purely consultative and it was strictly controlled by the King.
The
3 September 1843 Revolution
The 3 September 1843 Revolution ( el, Επανάσταση της 3ης Σεπτεμβρίου 1843; N.S. 15 September), was an uprising by the Hellenic Army in Athens, supported by large sections of the people, against the autocratic rule of K ...
forced Otto to grant a
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
, which was promulgated by the . The new constitution provided for a
constitutional monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
with a
bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
parliament composed of the Senate (Γερουσία) and the Parliament (Βουλή).
Presidents of the Parliament
The Parliament was to have no less than 80 members (in practice the number was between 127 and 142) with a three-year tenure (in practice some 2,5 years).
:''Note: all dates are
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
''
Presidents of the Senate
The Senate had a minimum of 27 members and could reach 39. Senators had to be over 40 years old, were named by the King and served for life. As a clearly monarchical instrument, it was abolished after 1862.
:''Note: all dates are
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
''
First period of the Constitutional monarchy, 1863–1924
After the ousting of King Otto,
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
were held to form the , which effectively ran the country until the arrival of King
George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
* George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
* Yuri Dolgor ...
in October 1863. The Assembly thereafter promulgated the
Constitution of 1864 and dissolved itself on 16 November 1864. The new constitution was liberal, established the principle of
popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. Popular sovereignty, being a principle, does not imply any ...
and defined the country's new form of government as a Constitutional monarchy with parliamentary democracy (βασιλευομένη δημοκρατία), but retained considerable executive powers for the king. The Senate was abolished, and a unicameral parliament (Βουλή) of 181 members with a four-year term was proclaimed as the country's sole legislative body.
The first decade was marked by frequent changes of government, especially due to the king's interference. A landmark was the adoption of the "''dedilomeni'' principle", championed by
Charilaos Trikoupis
Charilaos Trikoupis ( el, Χαρίλαος Τρικούπης; 11 July 1832 – 30 March 1896) was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895.
He is best remembered for introducing the vote of c ...
, in 1875, which forced the king to appoint only governments that commanded a
parliamentary majority
A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats. ...
and had the "declared (''dedilomeni'') confidence of the parliament". The 1880s and 1890s were also marked by political instability. The
Goudi coup
The Goudi coup ( el, κίνημα στο Γουδί) was a military coup d'état that took place in Greece on the night of , starting at the barracks in Goudi, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Athens. The coup was a pivotal event in mod ...
of 1909 resulted in the arrival of
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos ( el, Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, translit=Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, ; – 18 March 1936) was a Greek statesman and a prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movem ...
and the
August 1910 elections for a Revisoniary Parliament. New elections for a new Revisoniary Parliament were held in
November
November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, the fourth and last of four months to have a length of 30 days and the fifth and last of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. No ...
, and the
Constitution of 1911 was promulgated in June 1911. Political upheaval in the form of the
National Schism
The National Schism ( el, Εθνικός Διχασμός, Ethnikós Dichasmós), also sometimes called The Great Division, was a series of disagreements between Constantine I of Greece, King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizel ...
dominated Greek politics from 1915 on, resulting in the
Asia Minor Disaster
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
and the abolition of the monarchy in 1924.
:''Note: all dates are
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
''
Second Hellenic Republic, 1924–1935
The , resulting from the
December 1923 elections, declared the abolition of the monarchy and constituted itself as the Fourth Constitutional Assembly on 25 March 1924. It was abolished on 30 September 1925 after the coup d'état led by
Theodoros Pangalos on 26 June 1925, and the first regular parliament of the
Second Hellenic Republic
The Second Hellenic Republic is a modern historiographical term used to refer to the Greek state during a period of republican governance between 1924 and 1935. To its contemporaries it was known officially as the Hellenic Republic ( el, Ἑλλ ...
came about only after Pangalos' fall, with the
1926 elections. The new parliament voted the
Constitution of 1927, which also re-established the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, for which the
first elections were held in 1929.
Presidents of the Parliament
Presidents of the Senate
Second period of the Constitutional monarchy, 1946–1967
This includes the post-World War II period up to the establishment of the
Greek military junta of 1967–1974
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...
.
Third Hellenic Republic, 1974 to the present
The fall of the junta brought about a major regime change (''
metapolitefsi
The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history from the fall of the Ioaniddes military junta of 1973–74 to the transition period shortly after the 1974 legislative elections.
The m ...
''), which included the abolition of the monarchy by referendum. The strong
two-party system
A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referre ...
of
PASOK
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...
and
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
made the parliamentary life of the
Third Hellenic Republic
The Third Hellenic Republic ( el, Γ΄ Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Triti Elliniki Dimokratia) is the period in modern Greek history that stretches from 1974, with the fall of the Greek military junta and the final abolition of the Gree ...
the most regular in Greek political history, with the exception of the 1989–90 political crisis. After 2011, the prevailing political system was shattered through the effects of the prolonged
Greek debt crisis
Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis (Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that le ...
, leading to the marginalization of PASOK and the election, for the first time, of a left-wing party, the
Coalition of the Radical Left
The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...
, to power in the
January 2015 elections.
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See also
*
History of modern Greece
The history of modern Greece covers the history of Greece from the recognition by the Great Powers — United Kingdom, Britain, France and Russian Empire, Russia — of its Greek War of Independence, independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1828 ...
*
Politics of Greece
Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the gov ...
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speaker Of The Hellenic Parliament
Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament
Lists of legislative speakers
*
Lists of political office-holders in Greece
1821 establishments in Greece