Evangelos Venizelos

For lazy people, inertia is paradise. Antonis Samaras, the former conservative prime minister, is not lazy. His strenuous but ultimately unfruitful effort to pull Greece out of the crisis between 2012 and 2015 is proof of that. Moreover, during his tenure as prime minister, despite the economic crisis, there was some diplomatic movement in Greek-Turkish relations.

The Greek Justice system has removed the “masks” from protected witnesses “Maximos Sarafis” and “Aikaterini Kelesi,” almost six years after the Novartis case emerged under the SYRIZA-ANEL government as one of Greece’s largest scandals, which has since proven to be a major political fabrication.

Determined not to let the rhetoric of “national concessions” fester, Kyriakos Mitsotakis appeared from Brussels, speaking in strong terms of “super-patriots” and implicitly but responding to Antonis Samaras’ new shots, even though he separated his views from the right-wing rebukes of the government, against the backdrop of the Greek-Turkish dialogue, and immigration.

UPDATE: Nikos Androulakis finished first in the first round of PASOK’s internal elections. With 99.35% of the votes counted, Mr. Androulakis received 29.71%, followed by Charis Doukas with 21.38%, and Pavlos Geroulanos in third place with 21.15%. Anna Diamantopoulou follows with 19.56%, Michalis Katrinis with 5.9%, and Nadia Giannakopoulou with 2.3%.

It has been 50 years since the founding declaration of New Democracy on October 4, 1974. The declaration was signed solely by Konstantinos Karamanlis, just two and a half months after his return to Greece, following 11 years of self-imposed “exile” in Paris. Thus, the party was established, which, along with PASOK, became the two main pillars of the post-dictatorial Greek Republic.

The “disproportionate burden of defense spending borne by the Greek taxpayer” which “relates to the protection of European borders and, above all, to Greek-Turkish relations” was referred to by Bank of Greece governor Giannis Stournaras, speaking at the launch of Takis Pappas’ book “Paradoxical Country: Why Greece lags behind Ireland and Portugal and what can we learn from them?”.

During the event, the three former leaders, founding members, younger generation representatives, the current leader, and the other presidential candidates emphasized that PASOK is returning stronger in opposition, aiming to regain governmental influence in the future.

This year’s anniversary coincides with the final stretch leading up to the key leadership election. Former PASOK Presidents, Kostas Simitis, George Papandreou, and Evangelos Venizelos, will deliver greetings. Founding members who signed the September 3, 1974 declaration will be honored.