New Democracy

Ahead of a confidence vote designed to douse speculation about early elections, conservative coalition leader New Democracy will on Saturday celebrate the 40th anniversary of its founding in an event that is widely expected to serve as a bid to revive the party’s flagging political fortunes.

A young man arrested late on Wednesday with a notebook containing suspected targets for a terrorist attack this weekend has been identified, according to police who said he is a Greek national with no criminal record.

Theodoros Roussopoulos, formerly government spokesman under one-time conservative premier Costas Karamanlis, is to attend celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of New Democracy on Saturday.

The function is to take place at the Onassis Foundation's House of Arts and Letters on Syngrou Avenue, not far from ND's headquarters.

Police said on Thursday that a terrorist attack that had been planned for the weekend was foiled at the last minute with the arrest of a suspected accomplice of the jailed Revolutionary Struggle leader Nikos Maziotis, noting that the offices of New Democracy had been among the likely targets for the hit.

A group of 24 conservative New Democracy MPs on Tuesday submitted a joint appeal in Parliament for a bronze statue of Alexander the Great to be erected in a central spot of the capital.

The statue in question, by the late artist Yannis Pappas, was purchased by the Culture Ministry in 1993 and given to City Hall but it has yet to go on public display.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is to unveil plans for constitutional reform, including a change to the electoral system and the way the Greek president is elected, once the troika has completed its review of the country’s adjustment program, Kathimerini understands.

A Public Issue opinion poll published in Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper on Saturday gave SYRIZA an 11 percentage point lead over New Democracy.

New Democracy officials over the weekend marked the 25th anniversary since the assassination by the November 17 terrorist group of conservative politician Pavlos Bakoyannis, late husband of ND cadre Dora Bakoyannis and brother-in-law of Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The 1-billion-euro rise in bank deposits in August constitutes a clear indication of the improvement in the economy bolstered by the growth of tourism, according to figures issued by the Bank of Greece on Thursday.

A delegation of MPs from leftist SYRIZA met on Thursday with Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras in the wake of comments by the spokesman for New Democracy's parliamentary group, Adonis Georgiadis, according to which a potential rise to power by the leftists would spark a huge bank run.