New Greek President Sworn In

The newly-sworn in President of the Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, said on Friday that everyone has to contribute to help the country exit the crisis, during a handover ceremony with outgoing President Karolos Papoulias at the Presidential Mansion.

Papoulias received Pavlopoulos with a handshake and went to the outgoing president’s office where they had a brief conversation. "I am certain you will make an excellent President. You served in important ministries, you were an excellent professor. You take over at a difficult time; there are many problems and many issues at stake; mostly the issue of achieving a national consensus,” Papoulias said.

"I am certain you will do everything in your power to create a stable ground for achieving national reconciliation,” he added.

"We all have to contribute to help the country exit from the deep crisis, to fight the two scourges of poverty and unemployment and especially youth unemployment,” Pavlopoulos responded, and spoke of a difficult fight which is shared by all political parties, not just in Greece, but in Europe as well.

Pavlopoulos praised Papoulias tenure, saying it was “an exceptional honour” to succeed him.  "You exercised your duties perfectly, especially in the last difficult period … and its extremely important for one to leave the Presidency with this knowledge, with this legacy.”

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