Greece swears in first female president in scaled-down ceremony

Greece’s first woman president began her term Friday with a pledge to protect the country’s borders and to defend human rights. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a 63-year-old former senior judge, said she would “walk together” with Greeks to create a “prosperous” future “that includes all of us.”

The new head of the Greek state begins her five-year term in a terse standoff with neighboring Turkey, which has allowed tens of thousands of refugees to amass at the border.

Sakellaropoulou said Greeks had to “repulse the aggression of those who make designs on our national sovereignty by [exploiting] human pain,” AFP reports.

The ceremony in parliament was scaled back as a result of the global pandemic, with around 150 guests present instead of a planned 1,000 – and no handshakes. Greece has so far announced 117 cases of coronavirus, one of whom died Thursday after 10 days in hospital.