President will not signgov’t court nominations

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos will not sign a presidential decree green-lighting the appointment by the outgoing SYRIZA government of the new prosecutor and president of the Supreme Court, leaving the selection to the administration that will emerge after the July 7 snap election.

The Justice Ministry in May launched proceedings to replace the court’s president Vasilios Peppas and prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou, who stepped down on June 30 having reached the obligatory retirement age.

Pavlopoulos’ reasoning reportedly is that the selections were made during the campaign period and the gesture is interpreted as disapproval of the government’s political expediency.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had repeatedly insisted he was confident Pavlopoulos would approve the changes.