the votes of the 180 deputies from PASOK and the Communist Party. Shortly thereafter, he issued a televised message in which he called for unity, reaffirming that "our country is too small to support the luxury of national divisions". He was sworn in on 30 March in a ceremony boycotted by the 112 deputies of the conservative opposition (ND), who refused to attend based on the allegation that the election had been rendered unconstitutional when the acting Greek president Alevras, the then president of the Parliament, was allowed to vote. In 1986, Sartzetakis strongly opposed the bill that legalized abortion in the country. Between 1989 and 1990, he had to face an unprecedented triple electoral repetition due to the inability of the parties to form a government. In 1990, Christos Roussos, a young homosexual sentenced to life imprisonment in 1976 for murder, went on hunger strike. Faced with this situation, and heeding his appeal for a mistrial because he had murdered the man who wanted to prostitute him, the Papandreou government pardoned him, but was met with Sartzetakis' refusal to grant it. This fact provoked a wave of indignation accusing Sartzetakis of being a homophobe and soured his relationship with Prime Minister Papandreou. The pardon ultimately was granted in 1990 by Karamanlis. His personality as president was assiduously criticized and satirized. He demanded that newspapers refer to him as "Sir" with a capital "K" (), used the conservative form of modern Greek called katharevousa and was altogether considered a strict formalist with rigid thinking far removed from the people. Sartzetakis did, however, ascribe the same honor to other political personalities, such as Prime Ministers Andreas Papandreou, Costas Simitis, Konstantinos Mitsotakis and later President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos. He was criticized for buying air conditioners, expensive at the time, on his return from China and not passing through customs. However, it was claimed that the reported shopping while on official visits shouldn't be solely attributed to him. On two occasions he denounced comedians for making fun of him. In 1986 Sartzetakis appeared in a photograph with the-admittedly large-iron cross and the staff of Athanasius the Athonite at the Great Lavra. Harry Klynn satirized him on the cover of his album "Τίποτα". It was then that he was sued alleging insults to religious symbols, although Klynn was acquitted. The following year, the comedian Lakis Lazopoulos was arrested after publishing criticism of the political situation;