The separation of the judiciary from the legislature and executive powers is not a privilege accorded to judges but a constitutional guarantee so that they can administer justice impartially and unperturbed, President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos said on Monday, while addressing a reception at the presidential mansion celebrating the 43rd anniversary since the return of democracy to Greece.

“Only in a democratic regime and the separation of powers that is inherent in this can a person live and create freely,” Pavlopoulos said.

Separation of powers, the president said, presupposed different things for each power: for the legislature, it meant passing laws with respect for the Constitution; for the executive, it meant governance that promoted the public interest with respect for the rule of law; and for the judiciary, it meant administering justice with respect, on the part of the other two powers, of the guarantees of the personal and operational independence of judges, which are established for them by the Constitution not as privileges but as an institutional guarantee.

On the 43rd anniversary since democracy was restored in 1974, Pavlopoulos added, it was important to remember that the coup of April 21, 1967 and subsequent seven-year dictatorship was responsible for a twin tragedy for Greece: the loss of democracy and freedom and fundamental human rights and the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus, which was still ongoing.

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