Former President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos has been admitted into the hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 on Friday. He is asymptomatic.
Pavlopoulos, who served as President of Greece from 2015 to 2020, was admitted to Alexandra Hospital in Athens as a precautionary measure after testing positive for the virus on Friday.
His wife, Sissy Pavlopoulou, also tested positive for the virus. She is staying at home, and does not have serious symptoms.
Pavlopoulos had already received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine and was awaiting his booster shot before testing positive for the virus.
The former President was encouraged to stay in the hospital, despite not having any symptoms, considering his health history. In 2018, Pavlopoulos had a stent surgery, which could put him at risk for complications from Covid-19.
He is expected to be released in the near future, possibly even on Sunday, as he is in very good condition.
Prokopis Pavlopoulos: His life and career
Pavlopoulos was born in the city of Kalamata in the Peloponnese in 1950. He went to study Law at the Athens university in 1968. In 1974, he was appointed Secretary of the Greek President Michael Stassinopoulos, whom he met when the latter was being held under house arrest during the Military Junta in Greece.
One year later, in 1975, he began his studies in University of Paris II (former Sorbonne) after receiving a French government scholarship. He received a postgraduate DEA and in 1977 he was declared a Doctor in Public Law.
Upon completing his studies, Pavlopoulos completed his military service and began to work at the University of Athens as a professor.
Pavlopoulos then entered Greek politics as a member of New Democracy, Greece’s center-right party. He was first elected an MP with New Democracy in the 1996 election. Later, he was reelected with the same party in the first Athens district in the 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2012 elections.
He has served as Alternate Minister for the Presidency and government spokesman in the ecumenical government headed by Xenophon Zolotas (1989-1990), head of the legal office to Greek President Constantine Karamanlis from 1990 to 1995, New Democracy’s Press and Information Spokesman (1995-1997), Parliamentary Spokesman (2000-2004), Minister of Interior, and Public Administration and Decentralization (2004-2007.
Additionally, before becoming President of the Hellenic Republic in 2015, he served as Minister of the Interior from 2004 to 2009.
He is married to Vlassia (Sissy) Pavlopoulou-Peltsemi and they have three children: Vassilis, a lawyer, Maria, a French literature graduate, and Zoe, a kindergarten teacher.
He was succeeded by Katerina Sakellaropoulou in 2020. Sakellaropoulou is the first woman to ever serve in the role as President of the Hellenic Republic.
Before becoming the President of Greece, Sakellaropoulou served as President of the Hellenic Society for Environmental Law since 2015, and has actively worked on large cases involving the environment, including the diversion of the Acheloos River in Thessaly and the preservation of the historic refugee buildings on Alexandras Avenue in Athens.
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