Konstantinos Tasoulas

The vaccination of the general population against Covid-19 is scheduled to begin in February, starting with the elderly and vulnerable groups, the authorities said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata and Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas (l to r) on Wednesday attended a brief ceremony to mark Greece's Independence Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside Parliament.

Greece's president-elect, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, is to be sworn in on Thursday in a simplified ceremony in Parliament, with few officials present, to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus.

The procedures to elect the next Greek president will be set in motion by February 13, according to Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Tasoulas said the electoral law will soon be tabled in Parliament and this will pave the way for the relevant House procedures to begin for the election of the president.

Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas struck an optimistic note about what is in store in in 2020 in remarks just before Christmas.

At the same time he underlined Greece's peaceful resolve in dealing with Turkey's threat and the consequent escalation of tensions in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The leader of the main opposition Alexis Tsipras said on Monday he will not replace the two SYRIZA lawmakers who were removed from a parliamentary panel probing alleged meddling by former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos in the Novartis investigation.

Opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has sent a new letter of complaint to Parliamentary spokesman Konstantinos Tasoulas over the special committee investigating the handling of the Novartis bribery probe, sources said on Monday.

Political tensions intensified on Friday after Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas rejected a complaint by SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras over the exemption of leftist MPs Pavlos Polakis and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos from a House committee probing alleged meddling by former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos in the Novartis investigation.

Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas announced on Friday that a House committee probing alleged meddling by former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos in the Novartis investigation will not meet next Tuesday, as it was planned, to allow time for main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to select the replacements for the two party MPs who were ejected this week.

Political tensions over the Novartis investigation simmered on Wednesday after former premier and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras wrote to Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas to complain about the exemption of leftist MPs Pavlos Polakis and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos from a House committee probing alleged meddling in the investigation.