Angela Merkel

Germany is unilaterally promoting a new strict package on migration and internal security. In a sudden move, Berlin expanded temporary border controls with nine neighboring countries starting at midnight on Sunday. These measures are causing concern in Brussels, which is seeking explanations.

In the Bulgarian village of Staro Zhelezare, walls and fences have long served as an open-air gallery, showcasing an eclectic mix of art that draws visitors from across the country.

"I've never been more angry than at the way the Greek crisis was covered by the German media. It was so cheap. Imagine if foreign media covered Germany in the same way. That wasn't journalism, it was filth. Pure incitement of hatred. 'Sell your islands' might sound like an attractive headline, but it's sheer propaganda.

The inexperience of the SYRIZA government (2015-2019) forced Greece to undergo another five tough years, noted Charles Dallara, the former Institute of International Finance head who in 2012 led negotiations on a major haircut on Greece's private-held debt, known as the private sector involvement (PSI).

"I tried to provide solutions in the way I could," said Panagiotis Pikrammenos, reflecting on his time as caretaker prime minister during the Greek debt crisis.

Pikrammenos made the comment during a conversation with Tom Ellis, editor in chief at Kathimerini English Edition, at the "50 Years of the Metapolitefsi" conference in Athens on Thursday.

Before the tumultuous year of 2015, Greece actually came close to leaving the eurozone in 2012, following the election of Antonis Samaras as prime minister. Chancellor Angela Merkel was notably apprehensive about the New Democracy leader's pre-election campaign. 

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who helped negotiate German reunification in 1990 and as finance minister was a central figure in the austerity-heavy effort to drag Europe out of its debt crisis more than two decades later, has died. He was 81.

Schaeuble died at home on Tuesday evening, his family told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.

The legend of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) passed away in his sleep.
Schuble, who was part of the Bundestag for more than 50 years, is survived by his wife, four children and four grandchildren.
He was born in Freiburg in 1942, where he studied, and then he studied at the University of Hamburg.

With the relaxing in Greek-Turkish tensions made official by the recent meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece must now deal with German activism on the expansion of the European Union.

SYRIZA's choices of candidates for the local elections in October show that the party is out of touch with society. It is also heading fast toward a phase of introversion and contraction, leaving a vacuum in the opposition.