Politics

As 2025 draws to a close, a growing sense of political unease seems to dominate the Greek political landscape. The government will begin the new year rattled by unresolved crises and declining public confidence, while the opposition struggles to gain any momentum. What lies ahead is widely seen as a decisive year. Definitely a pre-election year, if not an electoral one, shaped by mounting speculation about new political parties and a reshuffling of the political deck.Can the governing New Democracy withstand the combined weight of rising living costs and political scandals? When will Alexis Tsipras formally announce his long-anticipated return to party politics? And will figures such as Antonis Samaras or Maria Karystianou move to reshape the political field altogether?Many believe that th...

The Greek Herald asked some of the Greek Australian community’s favourite writers for their recommendations on what to read this summer. The following writers have contributed: Jim Claven OAM, Kathryn Gauci, Katerina Vetsikas, Nick Dallas, Dr John Martino and Billy Cotsis. Many of these book titles can be found at the Bilingual Bookshop in Kogarah, Sydney or at the Greek Community Centre’s Bookshop in Melbourne. Dr John Martino, awarded First Place in the ‘CIBA Chanticleer International Book Awards’ – ‘Chaucer’ historical fiction division for Olympia: Birth of the Games which has been a solid seller internationally. He is also a former military officer. Fake News in Ancient Greece Diego De Brasi, Amphilichios Papathomas and Theofanis Tsiamokalos  Fake news is nothing...

These words were spoken in July 1994, at a Greek community event in Sydney, by former senator and federal minister Nick Bolkus, who passed away on Christmas Day.His loss is felt particularly deeply within the Greek-Australian community, of which he was a distinguished and active member. For decades, he worked tirelessly in its interests from positions of responsibility, most notably as a senator and federal minister on the Australian political stage.The leadership of the Australian Labor Party, at both state and federal levels, paid tribute to him. Most notably, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that “Nick Bolkus was one of the great sons of the Labor family.”Talking with Nick Bolkus: “You in Greek, me in English”LISTEN TOΑποχαιρετισμός στον Νίκο Μπόλκα Δευτέρα 29-12-2025 16'.58''Nick B...

On several occasions, Varoufakis mentions the broad range of his relations with members of the Greek political milieu. He stresses his past friendship with Yanis Stournaras (the current governor of the Bank of Greece, an ally of Mario Draghi and of the private Greek and foreign bankers), his good relations in 2009 with George Papandreou (who implemented the policies leading to the first Memorandum of Understanding in May 2010) and his relationship with Antonis Samaras (who led the Greek government after the second Memorandum of Understanding), and he devotes a large part of the first four chapters of his book to relating how a close collaboration, and at times a complicity, was formed with three Syriza leaders. Those leaders were Alexis Tsipras (who led the Greek people into the third Memo...

The First Lady of Greece, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, toured the lab of Elisa Konofagou to learn more about focused ultrasound and its ability to open the blood-brain barrier for improved delivery of chemotherapy to the brain. Photo by Chris Taggart for Columbia University Irving Medical Center On Sept. 26, the First Lady of Greece, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, visited the CUIMC laboratory of Elisa Konofagou, which is developing a new therapy for children with brain cancer.Grabowski-Mitsotakis, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, toured the Konofagou lab to learn more about focused ultrasound and its ability to open the blood-brain barrier for improved delivery of chemotherapy to the brain. The Greek delegation also met pediatric neuro-oncologist Stergios Zacha...

The research of Featherstone and Papadimitriou helped to formulate a new debate about governance in Greece and it had a direct influence on the Prime Minister's thinking.What was the problem?Successive Greek governments had struggled to steer and implement their major policy reforms. The Eurozone crisis further exposed the limited capacity of the Greek government to implement structural reforms.The constraints on government came from different sources, but the state administration itself had been weak for decades. A large, ill-coordinated state apparatus had developed, which laboured under suffocating legal procedures, lack of skills and expertise, and a politicisation of the appointments process.What did we do?Kevin Featherstone, LSE Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies, and Dimitris P...

[AMNA] Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will chair a cabinet meeting at noon on Monday, that will include newly appointed members of the government who replaced five ministers whose names appeared in a file from the European prosecutor implicating them in a scheme to defraud the EU’s farm budget. The issues on the agenda include presentations of the new European programs for the environment, and growth, and the National Strategy for AI, but the ongoing investigation into chronic corruption at the now-defunct OPEKEPE, the Greek organization in charge of EU payments, is expected to loom large over the meeting. Source link

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is using his parliamentary majority to block a full-scale investigation into a sprawling agricultural subsidy fraud that could cost Greece nearly €400 million in EU funds. Despite a detailed case file by European prosecutors naming ministers, MPs, and officials, the Greek government has refused to pursue charges against those implicated.The scandal centers on a long-running scheme to siphon off EU agricultural subsidies by filing fraudulent claims for farmland and livestock.As reported in Politico, The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has described the operation as a “criminal organization” involving senior officials in the Greek agriculture ministry and the state agency OPEKEPE, which is responsible for distributing EU farm funds.Wiretaps, Resi...

Greece has become “ungovernable,” former deputy prime minister and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has warned, citing what he called a deep crisis of confidence in the country’s institutions, democracy and political system. Speaking ahead of an upcoming event organized by his think tank, the Circle of Ideas, Venizelos said, in comments to state broadcaster ERT on Wednesday, that recent opinion polls point to “a multi-layered deadlock.”  Citizens, he said, are expressing disillusionment toward Parliament, the judiciary, independent authorities and political parties. “There is no willingness to participate in public life, and the political system is not seen as serious or productive,” he said. Asked about former speculation that former leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras is planning to fo...

Having studied the key players in the Greek crisis management and the changes this brought about within the Commission, I am now interested in how the EUintervenes in Member States' reforms through the SG REFORM mechanisms. One particular area of public policy that I am focusing on is the reform of central government administrations.In the EU, this highly symbolic area, linked to the Member States' political histories, is governed by the principle of autonomy. Therefore, it is considered neither possible nor desirable whether in terms of interministerial coordination, civil service career management, the recruitment of high-ranking civil servants, and so on.However, this sector has become more Europeanised in recent years. This has been the case in Greece, in a vertical manner. Conditional...