“America First!” The Life and Times of the New President of the Hellenic Republic

Dimitris Konstantakopoulos
Jan 16, 2025

The selection of Mr. Tasoulas for the office of the President of the Republic is, of course, exceptionally fitting for the actual state of our country and its democracy. Below, we will elaborate in greater detail on the extreme (even by Greek standards) “qualifications” of this man—from his utterly undignified subservience to the Americans to allegations that he demanded a bribe to legalize an unauthorized construction in Kifissia while serving as its mayor.

Regarding relations with our “Protectors” (the U.S.), never since the 1940s has a Greek politician displayed such brazenly shameless deference toward the United States as Mr. Tasoulas did when, while hosting the (now indicted) then-chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Menendez, in the Greek Parliament, he declared:

“From Corfu to Kastellorizo and from Crete to Thrace, we entrust Greece today into your hands. And we are confident it is in good hands.”

If tomorrow Mr. Mitsotakis decides to hastily settle Greek-Turkish relations as the Americans and Erdogan desire, or to resolve the Cyprus issue with a solution that dismantles the Cypriot state—akin to the Annan Plan—he will encounter no objection from Mr. Tasoulas. On the contrary, he will find support.

And this is not just a matter of formal authority; it is also a matter of prestige, particularly on issues concerning Turkey and Cyprus. The President’s “yes” or “no” carries immense political weight in determining what a Prime Minister can or cannot do.

Sources within New Democracy (ND) argue—not without reason—that among all the options Mr. Mitsotakis considered, choosing Tasoulas was far better than suddenly backing Mr. Venizelos. Ms. Katseli might have made a difference, but of course, she was never going to be supported. And obviously, Mr. Mitsotakis was tightly constrained by his desire to maintain full control over the President.

Read also:
Man of Straw

Yet even if we concede that Tasoulas is preferable to Venizelos, we cannot accept that this country lacks even a single other personality capable of serving it from the office of the Presidency.

Unfortunately, the Tasoulas affair also highlights just how suffocatingly “closed” Greece’s system of power, state, and parties truly is—how deeply it relies on cronyism and how determined it is to exclude any competent individual who might pose a “threat” (or is perceived as such). This mentality is what drives Greece into oblivion. It is why the country’s political and general personnel are at their worst level since the founding of the Greek state.

But that’s not all. Mr. Tasoulas was accused of bribery—specifically, of taking a €70 million bribe while serving as mayor of Kifissia. He refused to stand trial, invoking parliamentary immunity, resulting in Greece being penalized by the European Court of Human Rights.

Maria Karystianou, president of the Tempe Victims’ Association, also accused Tasoulas of obstructing the judicial investigation into the Tempe train disaster, which shocked all of Greece.

Tasoulas is a hardline right-winger, part of the Averoff faction within ND, and a staunch anti-communist—making the government’s claims that he is a “unifying figure” rather laughable.

In 2022, he invited Mr. Zelensky to speak in the Greek Parliament. Alongside him came (whether invited or merely tolerated) a representative of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

In 2017, he criticized Mr. Tsipras for honoring the memory of Nikos Beloyannis Nikos Beloyannis – Wikipedia, whose execution shocked the entire democratic world and symbolized the savagery of the Anglo-American-imposed regime in post-occupation Greece. Yet, while addressing Parliament, Tasoulas pointedly avoided condemning the execution of the “man with the carnation.”

Read also:
UN expert joins calls for presidential pardon for Assange

Consider this for a moment: Appeals to spare Beloyannis’ life were made by 250,000 people worldwide, including Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle, nearly every major figure in French political life, 159 MPs from Britain’s two largest parties, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Nazım Hikmet, and Charlie Chaplin. Even the then-Archbishop of Athens, Spyridon, intervened, stating: “I am shaken by the moral grandeur of Beloyannis. I consider it superior even to that of the early Christians, for Beloyannis does not believe in an afterlife.” And yet, decades later, this little man, Tasoulas—appointed to his position by another little man, Mitsotakis—delivered a speech in Parliament attacking Beloyannis.

My God, why have You diminished my country so much?

Published by Kosmodromio.gr Πρώτα η Αμερική! Βίος και Πολιτεία του νέου προέδρου της Δημοκρατίας Translated from Greek by Christian Haccuria