Movement for Change

It is "inconceivaable" for the Greek Orthodox Church to be demanding an exemption from the nationwide lockdown to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany on January 6, opposition Movement for Change (KINAL) said in a statement on Monday.

All opposition parties in Parliament denounced the government on Friday in the wake of the European Council and its conclusions regarding Turkey.

The Health Ministry is to launch a public awareness campaign to promote vaccination against Covid-19 at year's end after Parliament approved the "National Vaccination Campaign against Covid-19" amendment Friday night. 

New Democracy maintains a 17-point lead over the leftist opposition SYRIZA party in an opinion poll of voter intentions conducted by Pulse on behalf of Skai TV.

One day after SYRIZA's overture to the Movement for Change (KINAL), the center-left coalition led by Fofi Gennimata on Thursday rejected the idea of working with the leftist opposition ahead of the next election.
"Rumors about discussions with SYRIZA are no longer valid," KINAL spokesman Pavlos Christidis told a press briefing.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras on Monday stressed the need to seek and activate instruments such as a bad bank, as the so-called Hercules Asset Protection Scheme (HAPS) is considered insufficient, while he also recommended taking recourse to the credit line of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

MPs voted on Wednesday to expand the scope of an investigation into Dimitris Papangelopoulos, a minister in the former leftist SYRIZA administration, over his alleged meddling in a judicial investigation into bribery claims linked to Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.

Greece's National Council for Foreign Policy was convening on Wednesday to brief opposition parties about Turkey's activities and the ministry's new plan operational plan.

A deal for an undersea pipeline to carry gas from new offshore deposits in the southeastern Mediterranean to continental Europe signed by Greece, Cyprus and Israel earlier in the year was ratified by a wide majority in a parliamentary committee on Monday evening.

Greece's Parliament on Tuesday observed on minute of silence in commemoration of three bank employees who were killed in a firebombing attack during an anti-austerity protest in downtown Athens on May 5, 2010.