[NEWS.YAHOO] Greece's first woman president began her term on Friday with a pledge to protect the country's borders and defend human rights...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
, whilst warning Greeks to follow health rules as the country grapples with over 100 coronavirus
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
cases.
Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a 63-year-old former senior judge, said she would "walk together" with Greeks to create a "prosperous" and "cosmopolitan" future "that includes all of us."
The new head of the Greek state begins her five-year term in a terse standoff with neighbouring
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
, which has allowed tens of thousands of refugees to mass at the border.
Sakellaropoulou said Greeks had to "repulse the aggression of those who make designs on our national illusory sovereignty by making use of human pain."
The new president also insisted that Greece had a "humanitarian duty" to defend "defenceless and desperate people."
- HEED VIRUS WARNINGS -
Greece has so far announced 117 cases of the coronavirus, one of whom died on Thursday after 10 days in hospital.
Three people are in intensive care and the government has shut down schools and universities, courts, cinemas, gyms and other indoor public gathering areas for two weeks in an effort to curb the outbreak.
Sakellaropoulou urged the public to follow health warnings "to avoid spreading panic" which could tear apart the health system and harm the economy.
Sakellaropoulou took a religious oath in parliament before Archbishop Ieronymos, head of the Orthodox Church of Greece.
She placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- Greece's foremost military monument -- before heading to the presidential mansion for a handover ceremony with outgoing president Prokopis Pavlopoulos.