Prokopis Paylopoulos

Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a legal scholar, academic, and politician, was born in Kalamata in 1950, where he completed high school. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Athens in 1973 and pursued postgraduate studies in Paris. In 1977, he was awarded a Doctorat d'État from the University of Paris II, where he later (1986) taught as a Visiting Professor. In 1982, he was appointed as an Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Athens and, following successive evaluations for the positions of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, he was elected Professor at the same Faculty in 1989. Among his numerous works in the academic field, notable ones include "La directive en droit administratif," Paris, 1978, "The Constitutional Guarantee of the Application for Annulment: A Modern View of the Rule of Law," 1982, "Lessons in Administrative Science," 1983, "The Civil Liability of the State," Vol. I, 1986, Vol. II, 1989, "Guarantees of the Right to Judicial Protection in European Community Law," 1993, "The Public Works Contract," 1997, etc. In the political arena, from 1974-1975, he served as Secretary to the first (interim) President of the Republic, Michael Stasinopoulos. Between 1989-1990, he was a member of the Ecumenical Government of Xenophon Zolotas, serving as Deputy Minister to the Presidency responsible for media and as Government Spokesman. From 1990 to 1995, he was Director of the Legal Office of the Presidency of the Republic under President Konstantinos Karamanlis. Between 1995 and 1996, he served as the Press Representative of the New Democracy party. In 1996, he was elected Member of Parliament for the State with New Democracy and served as Head of Public Administration, Public Order, and Justice until 2000. Since 2000, he has been continuously elected as Member of Parliament for Athens A. Between 2000-2004, he served as Parliamentary Representative of New Democracy. From 2004-2009, he was the Minister of the Interior in the governments of Kostas Karamanlis. In 2015, he became the seventh President of the Hellenic Republic (since the restoration of democracy in 1974), succeeding Karolos Papoulias. In March 2020, he was succeeded by Katerina Sakellaropoulou.