Greek constitutional amendment of 2019

At the end of 2018, the then Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras announced his intention to amend the Constitution of Greece.

In total, 49 provisions were proposed for amendment, of which 16 were passed by a qualified majority (at least 180 votes) and in the following (Revision) Parliament need a simple majority (at least 151 votes) while a simple majority approved the remaining 33, but not by a qualified majority and will need a qualified majority by the (Revision) Parliament. The first phase of the revision took place on 15 February 2019 and the second one month later, on 15 March 2019, with a repeat vote, which finalized the provisions that would be revised, which were put to vote by the (Revision) Parliament (third and final phase) in the following months.

One of the main proposals is the decoupling of the election of the President of the Republic from snap elections, the exclusive ownership of national road networks and the provision of basic goods, such as electricity and water supply, by the state, the limitation of parliamentary immunity, the abolition of the Religious Oath by elected officials, the religious neutrality of the state, the establishment of simple proportional representation in national and local elections, the creation of a legislative framework for the holding of a referendum following the request of 500 thousand members of the electorate, and the exclusivity of the parliamentary office for the role of Prime Minister.

Also, two proposals by New Democracy did not qualify for revision, for the operation of private universities with the abolition of Article 16 and the election of the judiciary by parliament and not by government appointments.

The final vote was held on November 25. The Constitution was published in Government Gazette A 211/24.12.2019.