Politics

(left) Kyriakos Mitsotakis, current Prime Minister; (right-top) Alexis Tsipras, former Prime Minister; (right-below) Socratis Famellos, leader of SYRIZA; Nikos Androulakis, leader of PASOK, Zoe Konstantopoulou, leader of ’Course of Freedom’ Since the 2019 victory of the conservative New Democracy party and the election of Kyriakos Mitsotakis as Prime Minister—following the electoral defeat of Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA—Greek society has experienced several periods of heightened tension. This tension reached its peak during two key events: the 2022 surveillance scandal and the 2023 Tempi train crash, which claimed the lives of at least 57 people and was followed by widespread criticism of the government’s handling of the aftermath, and. In both cases, public frustra...

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides pledged to strengthen bilateral cooperation during the third Greece–Cyprus Intergovernmental Summit., held in Athens on Wednesday, with energy, connectivity, and the upcoming Cypriot EU Presidency at the center of discussions.Speaking during a press conference, after their meeting at the Maximos Mansion, Mitsotakis described the summit as “a partnership we designed together—an idea proposed by my dear friend Nikos in November 2023,” aimed at ensuring structured coordination across a broad range of bilateral and international issues.“This is a cooperation that places citizens’ everyday lives at the center of our common interests,” the Prime Minister said, noting that the two governments agreed to expand joi...

Elon Musk announced the formation of his party, the America Party. Credit: AMNA Multi-billionaire Elon Musk announced the formation of his own political party, the America Party, on Saturday following a question he posted on X on the 4th of July. “Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system! Should we create the America Party?” he inquired online. A total 1,248,856 people responded to the question with results showing that 65.4 percent are in favor and 34.6 percent against such a development. The following day, Musk then posted on the platform: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party sy...

Under Greek law, political parties must gather at least 200 signatures from citizens with voting rights to participate in elections. It is alleged that some of these were fake. “These are absurdities stemming from fear of the rise of our political party and originating from attacks by a political opponent, who is known for his vulgarity in Greece,” an official from the party said. Latinopoulou was kicked out of the ruling New Democracy party in 2022 after body-shaming a television presenter. She decried the decision, blaming it on “woke culture.” She then founded the Voice of Reason party in 2023 and won a seat in the European Parliament. The party is described as a modern patriotic movement dedicated to preserving Greek identity and values, summed up under the slogan “Fatherland,...

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during a debate on the no-confidence motion against the government in parliament in Athens, 7 March 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/ALEXANDROS BELTES Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his government on Friday, attempting to launch a restart in the shadow of widespread protests over how his centre-right government has handled the Tempi train crash issue. Mass protests over the crash that cost 57 lives in 2023, the upcoming start of a parliamentary investigation into a former deputy minister for alleged wrongdoing related to the crash, a no-confidence motion filed by opposition parties last week and recent negative ratings in opinion polls have prompted Mitsotakis to change his cabinet line-up. In an opinion poll conducted by TV Channel S...

ISTANBUL Greek trade union confederation, PAME, on Thursday called for protests after Israel attacked the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla."We call on all trade unions, every worker, to strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people. Everyone, on October 10th, to the demonstration at the embassy of the murderous state of Israel," PAME wrote on US social media company X.The union, which is one of the country's biggest unions affiliated with the Greek Communist Party (KKE), condemned the attack on the flotilla, also including the Greek ship “Oxygen,” and stressed that it is a "continuation of the genocide" against the Palestinian people."It is emboldened by the plans and the support of the USA, the EU, and the governments that back its crimes for the interests of the monopolies in the reg...

The Greek Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport announced that EV drivers can now apply for a new exemption from parking fees in municipal parking lots, which will now remain active until the end of 2026. Privately managed parking spaces are not part of the deal. The exemption from parking fees can be applied for online on the Greek government’s website. The applicant will receive a parking sticker once the application is approved.The free parking measure applies to fully electric and low-emission vehicles with maximum CO2 emissions of 50 g/km. The regulation is initially valid until 31 December 2026 but could be extended again.In 2020, the Greek government adopted a major package to promote electric mobility. That included an EV subsidy scheme of up to 15 per cent of the purchase price...

Maria Damanaki, the former leader of Greece’s left-wing Synaspismos party, ex–EU commissioner, and current principal advisor to the international ocean conservation alliance Oceans 5 discusses the challenges of the green transition, Donald Trump’s impact on climate policy, the debate over hydrocarbon exploration, and whether dialogue with Turkey is inevitable.Interview by Niki LymberakiFor the past several years, Maria Damanaki has been dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans. In this interview, she speaks about her cooperation with the Greek government, the energy puzzle of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Greece’s complex relationship with Turkey. She also reflects on the dilemmas facing Europe’s Left, her years at the helm of Synaspismos—the coalition that eventually evolved into Syriz...

Greece’s centre-right government initially blamed ‘human error’ for the collision involving two trains which, it emerged, had been moving in opposite directions on the same line for some 12 minutes. The official investigation into the disaster is still going on, with questions still unanswered about signalling, radio communication and the responsibility of the stationmaster in Larissa, the station which the passenger train had just left moments before the head-on crash. The first four carriages were derailed, two of which were engulfed in fire. Some of the victims survived the initial crash, only to perish in the fire. Founded the summer after the crash, the victims’ association now has more than 240,000 followers on Facebook. “Because we knew that things were very difficult and that it wo...

(H1) We expect that through their posts the politicians will seek primarily to “construct” a positive self-image, rather than “attack” their political opponents (partially accepted).As already mentioned, relevant previous research on Instagram has shown that (Greek) politicians -independent of their political role- prioritized their self-presentation in a positive way over the “attack” against political opponents (Poulakidakos and Koutsikos, 2023). According to Fig. 1, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (the incumbent prime minister) appears to be almost totally dedicated to constructing a positive self-image, while the opposition leaders try to “balance” their TikTok strategy between a positive presentation of the self (mostly in the case of Nikos Androulakis) and attack to political opponents (mostly b...