Politics

Documentary photographs of one of the most well-known Nazi crimes during the German occupation of Greece have emerged in an auction, 82 years later. Source: ebay / Facebook Greece at WWII Archives Unseen photographs appearing to document the Nazi crime of executing 200 Greek resistance fighters at the Kaisariani Shooting Range on May Day 1944 have emerged, 82 years later. The mass execution took place on May Day, in retaliation for the death of a German general, three officers accompanying him, and the injury of several soldiers in Molaoi, Laconia, on April 27, 1944. This is the first time images from the bloody May Day emerge, when 200 political prisoners were executed at the Kaisariani Shooting Range by the German occupying forces. If these photographs prove to be authentic, they constit...

Action to secure the release of a Greek Cypriot who has been held in the north since last Tuesday is being taken, the government confirmed on Monday. “Actions are being taken through Unficyp and the competent technical committee, with the aim of his release,” a government source said. The man was collecting wild herbs and asparagus near the buffer zone in Yerolakkos when he was intercepted by Turkish Cypriot authorities. He was brought before a court in northern Nicosia after being initially detained for entering ‘a restricted military zone’. Turkish Cypriot police said that 16 shotgun cartridges were found in his vehicle. The prosecution charged him with entering a restricted area and illegal possession and transport of explosives. A judge granted a four-day re...

Greek politician Stefanos Kasselakis praised the role of young voters in Zoran Mamdani’s recent mayoral victory in New York City, noting the 34-year-old candidate’s clean political image and forward-thinking program.Speaking on the show Koinonia Ora Mega, Kasselakis emphasized that Mamdani succeeded against a system-embedded opponent with allegations of misconduct. “What we see is a new trend,” Kasselakis said. “Against the right-wing populism and the so-called progressive establishment, young people are bringing forward candidates with innovative economic ideas.”Kasselakis also highlighted Mamdani’s policy proposals, including limits on rent increases and free public transport, which aim to ease the high cost of living in New York. “This may sound expensive, but it encourages people to sw...

Greek jurist, academic, and senior political figure Anna Psarouda-Benaki has passed away at the age of 92, marking the end of a distinguished public life that helped shape post-dictatorshipGreece. Anna Psarouda-Benaki was the first woman to serve as President of the Hellenic Parliament and the first woman to lead the Academy of Athens. She was also Professor Emerita of Criminal Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Statement by Nikitas Kaklamanis The current Speaker of Parliament, Nikitas Kaklamanis, issued a moving tribute following her passing. “With deep sorrow and profound emotion, I bid farewell today to Anna Psarouda-Benaki,” he said, describing her as a rare political figure of strong intellectual stature, deep legal expertise, and unwavering commitm...

Analysts and political parties are still trying to understand how a 35-year-old US resident and businessman, previously unknown in Greece, managed to win the main opposition Syriza party’s leadership in what is described as a “metapolitics” phenomenon. Stefanos Kasselakis was born in Greece but migrated to the US at the age of 14 after he received a full scholarship to Phillips Academy High School in Andover, Massachusetts. According to his CV, after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he followed a successful career in the shipping industry and worked for Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, he also volunteered on the staff of then-Senator Joe Biden for the 2008 Presidential Election. On Sunday (24 September), after a toxic and quite intense pre-election debate, he won the second round...

Updates with comments of New Democracy MEP Eliza Vozemberg Greece’s former national theatre director, Dimitris Lignadis was arrested on Saturday (20 February) on suspicion of having committed multiple rapes involving also children, prompting politicians from the ruling New Democracy party (EPP) and the main opposition leftist Syriza (GUE-NGL) to trade accusations over the weekend. Dimitris Lignadis was arrested following accusations of serial rapes which involve minors in 2010 and 2015. He will remain in custody until his plea on Wednesday. Lignadis has denied all accusations so far. Greek media report that more cases will be testified later this week that expect to shed light on the unfolding scandal. Citing court sources, news website Documento.gr reported that refugee children are also ...

The Greek socialist party (Pasok) refuted assumptions by the main opposition Syriza party that the conservative government is blackmailing its leader Nikos Androulakis through a wiretapping scandal to influence post-election coalition talks, Pasok sources told EURACTIV.com. The scandal erupted last summer when MEP and Pasok leader Nikos Androulakis found that secret services attempted to bug his phone with Predator spyware. Analysts suggest that Pasok, which steadily ranks third in polls, will be a kingmaker’s role in the next elections as a new electoral law will be implemented, and a coalition government will be needed. Tensions escalated earlier this week when Syriza spokeswoman Popi Tsapanidou said the Greek prime minister “may know secrets of Androulakis and can blackmail him”, thus a...

When a rightwing military junta overthrew the Greek government on April 21, 1967, a poet’s name was at the top of their enemies list: Yannis Ritsos, one of the country’s most esteemed writers. A special unit arrested him that very morning, rounding him up alongside eventually more than 10,000 other “enemies of the state,” including ordinary citizens, civil servants, journalists, and politicians. Thus began the Regime of the Colonels, which brutalized Greece from 1967 to 1974. It wasn’t the first time Ritsos had been arrested by a dictatorship—his first exile occurred almost 20 years earlier—but this time the Colonels had learned from their predecessors. They dispatched Ritsos to a series of concentration camps on small, uninhabited islands in the Greek archipelago, including the notorious ...

Works by Christophoros Katsadiotis vandalised. Courtesy National Gallery–Alexandros Soutsos Museum A politician from Greece’s rightwing religious Niki party has attacked four works in The National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens. The focus of Nikolaos Papadopoulos’s ire were contemporary engravings by Christophoros Katsadiotis with religious themes. The institution temporarily closed after the incident and Papadopoulos was taken away by police. Icon 1, Icon 16, Icon 17 and Saint Christopher are all featured in the group show The Allure of the Bizarre, an exhibition that runs alongside a show of 80 engravings by Francisco Goya. On Monday, Papadopoulos and an accomplice entered the museum and removed the works from the wall, threw them to ground and stamped on them. ...

[Shutterstock] The Greek government said Friday it will take legislative action if new withdrawal fees reported at former Piraeus Bank ATMs now operated by private firm Cashflex are confirmed. “No loophole for withdrawal charges will be tolerated, not even at a portion of ATMs,” government sources told local media, adding, “If two-tiered fees are detected, the government will intervene.” The controversy follows complaints from customers being charged up to 2.10 euros to withdraw cash from ATMs they previously used for free. The affected machines, about 850 in total, were sold by Piraeus Bank to Cashflex, in which the bank retains a 20% stake. Many of the ATMs are located in high-traffic public areas such as metro stations, hospitals, superma...