Why Sakellaropoulou’s term should be renewed

The new year will add another headache to Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Katerina Sakellaropoulou’s five-year term ends in March 2025 and already some are trying to use the result of the European elections to achieve her eviction from the Presidential Palace. A former minister and member of parliament of the blue faction stated a few days ago that the new President should be a center-right politician. The vague relationship of the President with the Prime Minister, the absence of a personal agenda, the excellent performance of her duties so far, her clear distancing from political games combined with her firm adherence to the institutional treatment of the role even during the difficult period of wiretapping when in fact, the opposition pressured her to engage in extra-institutional involvement and she referred to the Justice and the Parliament, they were the guarantees for her stay in Herodos Attikou and for the next five years. However, it was only at the beginning of May that Kyriakos Mitsotakis, when asked about this, openly declared his trust in the person of Katerina Sakellaropoulou with the characteristic conclusion “I think you can draw your own conclusions”. In any case, he has no reason, beyond the satisfaction of blue ambitions or vanities, not to renew an admittedly successful term. The highest office she held in the Judiciary gave Katerina Sakellaropoulou from the beginning the institutional weight required for the highest state office, but also the possibility to fully implement the letter and spirit of the Constitution that governs her role, but above all the limits of interventions her. The former president of the CoE managed in these 4 years to give the institution her own aesthetic and value perception, making it more extroverted. He did not sit around or take comfort in the high prestige of the position, he brought down the democratic symbol to the citizens. She met with Schedia sellers, went to Eleni Topaloudi’s parents herself, made a solidarity trip to Kyiv, distributed food to the homeless, attended performances with children living in institutions. He was criticized. Even for these. From some who are nostalgic for the country’s first Turkish-loving citizens and some who believe that the role of the President of the Republic is to issue press releases with scattered “strict messages to Ankara” from the imposing chair of the Presidency.