Indirect presidential elections were held in Greece in December 2014 and February 2015 for the succession to Karolos Papoulias as President of the Hellenic Republic.

The candidate of the ND–PASOK government, Stavros Dimas, failed to secure the required majority of MPs of the Hellenic Parliament in the first three rounds of voting in December.

[1] On 9 December 2014, Samaras announced the candidacy of New Democracy politician Stavros Dimas, jointly supported by the ruling New Democracy–PASOK coalition, for the presidency.

[7][8] After being asked by prime minister Samaras, incumbent president Papoulias on 31 December issued a presidential decree formally dissolving the parliament, as required by the constitution.

[11] The date was subsequently postponed again, due to the new government's preoccupation with negotiations with the other Eurozone members over Greece's debt, with SYRIZA's candidate for the presidency to be announced on the weekend of 14–15 February.

[16] Greek newspaper To Vima disclosed that high representatives of Syriza also considered the candidacy of the widely respected Eastern Orthodox Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania, Anastasios.

[17][18] By 11 February, the two main figures tipped for the office were Karamanlis and Avramopoulos, with government source reporting that any other candidacy would be a radical departure from current plans.

In the unlikely event of such an outsider candidature, however, author Ioanna Karystiani and film director Costas Gavras were considered as likely choices, while the candidacy of former Synaspismos chairman Nikos Konstantopoulos would be unlikely since his daughter Zoi Konstantopoulou was the new Speaker of Parliament.

[23] As the ruling ND–PASOK coalition did not have enough seats to ensure the election of a president of the republic, the possibility of snap elections, which could be won by the leftist anti-austerity Syriza party and its leader Alexis Tsipras, that was then leading in opinion polls, caused widespread anxiety over Greece's future, struggling to exit a prolonged government-debt crisis.

On Tuesday, 30 December 2014, following the announcement of the elections being brought forward, the Athens Stock Exchange fell by 9.5%[24] and interest rates for 10-year loans of Greece went up to 9%.