"We need a president with proven social sensitivity... who is widely accepted by the Greek parliament and the people," Tsipras said.The parliament will hold a roll call vote on Wednesday, at 19.30, as parliament speaker Zoi Konstantopoulou announced on Monday evening.
Ahead of the announcement, the Independent Greeks party (ANEL) said that it would propose someone else for the presidency, but at the same time noted that they will support the candidate put forward by their main coalition partner.
The announcement came as a shock to former members of the PASOK party, especially those who still support George Papandreou.
For example, Odysseas Konstantinopoulos, a PASOK party MP, tweeted: "I will propose to the Parliamentary Group not to vote for the person who derailed the state administration and contributed to the crisis."
The hard line supporters of PASOK, who have either gone on to SYRIZA, or to Papandreou's new political party, were indeed unsparing towards Pavlopoulos in their comments.
"The laundering of Karamanlis continues," tweeted former PASOK lawmaker Thanos Moraitis, who followed Papandreou in his new Movement of Democrat Socialists and was not re-elected in the last election. (Meaning that Pavlopoulos is one of Karamanlis' closest aides).
"That's right, always march left," said former PASOK government spokesman George Petalotis, another Papandreou stalwart, in his Facebook account.
"I am ashamed of on Tsipras' behalf," tweeted former PASOK former Minister of Interior under George Papandreou, Yiannis Ragousis. Today Ragousis is no longer active in politics. "Your choice as President of the Republic shows who you are."Meanwhile, Stavros Theodorakis, leader of centrist party To Potami (The River), which entered parliament for the first time, refrained from commenting on Pavolopoulos' candidacy, and instead named its own candidate, Nikos Alivizatos, who is also a professor of constitutional law.
Prokopis Pavlopoulos is a former interior minister with the Conservatives (under the government of Costas Karamanlis) and a veteran member of the New Democracy party. He was born in 1950 in Kalamata, in the Peloponnese, is a Greek lawyer, university professor and politician.
He is married to Vlassia Pavlopoulou-Peltsemi and they have three children: Vassilis, an attorney-at-law, Maria, a French language and literature graduate and Zoe, a nursery school teacher.
In 1974 he was secretary to the first President of the republic, Michail Stasinopoulos. Pavlopoulos worked with the latter when he was arrested by the military junta in Greece, who placed Stasinopoulos under house arrest.
Pavlopoulos studied law at the Université de Paris II on a scholarship by the French Government, and was awarded his postgraduate studies Diplome d’ etudes approfondies (DEA) in 1975 as well as a doctorate in Public Law in 1977 with honourable mention.
In 1978-79 he served his military obligation.
He then entered the academia as a lecturer (1981), assistant professor (1983), associate professor (1986) and professor of Public Law (1989) at the Athens University Law School.
In 1986 he was elected visiting professor at Université de Paris II.
He has published several books, papers and articles, primarily in the legal field.
In the general elections of 1996 he was elected on the state deputies list with the New Democracy Party while in 2000, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2012 he was elected as a Member of Parliament representing the first Athens constituency.
He has served as Deputy Minister of the Presidency and Spokesman for the Zolotas Coalition Government (1989-1990), Legal Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic Constantine Karamanlis (1990-1995), Spokesman for the New Democracy Party (1995-1997), Parliamentary Spokesman for the New Democracy Party (2000-2004), Minister of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation (2004-2007) and Minister of Interior (2007-2009).
Editor's Note - Why was Pavlopoulos chosen? He is not active in the political scene any more, and had distanced himself from the Samaras government and the Memorandums. Secondly, he is a strong supporter of Costas Karamanlis (or part of the Karamaliko) group (of supporters). Those who follow Greek political history know that the Karamanlis family legalized the Left in Greece, and the former PM as well as his late uncle had a tremendous amount of respect for the Left. Also, Pavlopoulos is a distinguished professor of constitutional law. His expertise can be useful with national agreements. Thank goodness Dora Bakoyanni was not nominated, but then again we are not counting our chickens before they hatch because it was rumored that ANEL might throw her name on the table before the voting in Parliament. Some readers could be asking themselves why rally for Pavlopoulos, and not Karamanlis? The answer is simple, the role of the president is symbolic. If the President was elected by the people and held powers like Hollande does in France or Putin does in Russia, then HellasFrappe would be the first voice to support that candidacy. We believe Karamanlis will have his hands full in the days to come with the ND party anyway. Stay tuned frappers... things are starting to become very interesting.