Politics

Donald Trump might have his own way of presenting reality, but what the American president says about Iran is reasonable, Greek conservative minister Adonis Georgiadis told Euractiv. The threat continues to exist, said Georgiadis, an influential member of the New Democracy government under Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Can “anyone in Europe could rest easy at night if the regime in Iran possessed nuclear weapons?” he asked. “I believe not,” he said. Georgiadis currently serves as health minister, and has previously held several ministerial posts, including in growth, competitiveness and shipping. How do you assess Europeans’ stance towards Trump, particularly on the issue of Iran? Trump certainly has an idiosyncratic way of expressing himself – perhaps not always the greatest degree of courtesy. Ho...

[InTime News] Greece’s fractured left is undergoing rapid realignment as former prime minister Alexis Tsipras prepares a political comeback through a new party. Within SYRIZA, a small group of MPs would abandon their parliamentary seats immediately upon receiving a signal from Tsipras, while a larger group refuses to surrender their seats at this stage. Insiders say the conversation will shift significantly after September, closer to elections. Meanwhile, New Left, the two-year-old splinter party, appears to be dissolving from within. Party president Alexis Charitsis is expected to hand leadership to secretary Gavriil Sakellaridis next week, following strategic disagreements over whether to cooperate with Tsipras. Eight MPs aligned with Char...

By making the offence of spreading false information punishable by 5 years of imprisonment, a new Greek law violates press freedom, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says, calling for this offence to be decriminalised and for the fight against disinformation to focus instead on systematic support for reliable news and information in the media and on social networks. Ignoring the many protests from national publishers and international press freedom NGOs, including RSF, the Greek parliament approved an amendment to the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure on 11 November which – by extending the definition of “false information” and reinforcing the penalties – violates the right of journalists to disseminate information of general interest.   Under article 191 of the Penal Code...

Speaking to President Biden and Congress, Kyriakos Mitsotakis revealed the recipe for brewing politics at the centre and cornering opposing extremisms. A call some Italian politicians should heed… Warn the centrists, both genuine and wannabes. It’s quite possible to be a European politician who is moderate, centre-right, pro-European, Atlanticist, and a government leader at the same time. Since 2019 Kiriakos Mitsotakis has been Prime Minister of Greece, “the oldest democracy in the world,” as he likes to repeat. He just became the first Greek leader to address the US Congress and spoke at Georgetown University on Monday, laying out his political philosophy. His political prescription also doubles as a message in a bottle for Italian moderates. The calm after the populis...

After Greece and the European Central Bank agreed post-economic-crash bailout terms in 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a 146-page report outlining all the key state problems that were seen as having caused Greece’s fiscal crisis. One of them was corruption, which has eaten away at accountability in Greek politics since the end of military dictatorship in 1974. Sean Hagan, the former general counsel of the IMF described Greece as a tough case, as corruption appeared to be widespread on all levels of public administration. On winning the 2019 general election, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged those underlying issues. He promised to be ruthless about the symptoms of corruption and fight off accusations of elitism. Far from achieving these goals, however...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose conservative party scored a landslide election Sunday but without the seats in parliament to win outright, indicated Sunday he will seek a second election in a bid to consolidate victory without need of a coalition partner. Mitsotakis' New Democracy party was a full 20 percentage points ahead of its main rival, the left-wing Syriza party, nearly complete results showed. But a new electoral system of proportional representation meant his 40 percent vote share still was not enough to secure a majority of the 300 seats in parliament. To form a government, he would either have to seek a coalition partner from a smaller party, or head to a second election. The prime minister said he would "follow all constitutional procedures...

ATHENS – The television screens across Greece showcased the faces of the country’s political party leaders as the election results unfolded on May 21. However, one striking observation was evident—they were all men. Despite continuous assurances from successive governments to enhance the representation of women in their Cabinets and as ministers, only a few appointments have materialized. The passing of Fofi Gennimata, the former PASOK-KINAL leader, in October 2021 at the age of 57 further accentuated the lack of female major party chiefs. In a feature published in Barron’s, the news agency Agence France-Presse shed light on this phenomenon, underscoring the persistent male dominance in Greek politics and the ongoing struggle for women to secure higher positions. Women in Greece gained the...

He is rich, handsome, openly gay, a former Goldman Sachs trader and shipowner to boot.Four weeks ago few in Athens had heard of Stefanos Kasselakis. But as the Greek American entrepreneur has shown, a month is a long time in politics.Since unexpectedly announcing his candidacy in the race to lead the leftwing Syriza party, Greece’s main opposition, the 35-year-old outsider has lit up country’s staid political scene in ways few could have imagined. What might once have seemed outlandish – a US businessman vying for the leadership of the radical force – suddenly seems very real.Before polls open for the runoff vote on Sunday, many are asking whether Kasselakis, who won more votes than any of his fellow candidates in a first round last week, can now pull off the unthinkable and beat Efi Achts...

Athens, Greece – Stefanos Kasselakis, a 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader, was elected leader of Syriza on Sunday, sending shockwaves throughout the Greek left with his meteoric rise.Within a month, he emerged from political obscurity to head Greece’s main opposition group.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listKasselakis threw his hat into the ring at the end of August, posting a four-minute video to this social media channels promising to “build the Greek dream”.He is seen by some as a breath of fresh air for a party which has struggled to meaningfully challenge Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his ruling right-wing New Democracy party in recent elections.“Let the right fall!”, “Go ahead and change everything!” Kasselakis’s supporters cheered at the party headquarters in central Athe...

Athens, Greece – Far-right activists and neo-Nazi organisations in Greece recently called for a pan-European memorial in Athens, to commemorate 10 years since two members of the self-described Nazi organisation, Golden Dawn, were killed.On November 1, 2013, Manolis Kapelonis and Giorgos Fountoulis – both in their 20s – were fatally shot in a drive-by attack outside the party’s office, an apparent revenge assault for the murder weeks earlier of the anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, by a Golden Dawn member.In response to this week’s call, dozens of antifascist groups organised counterprotests at nearby metro stations and squares.A few days before these events, which were planned for Wednesday, the General Police Directorate of Attica issued a 24-hour ban on all public outdoor meetings.The ...