Niki Kerameus

Apart from abolishing a contentious university asylum law to quash lawlessness on Greek campuses, the center-right government plans to overhaul the education sector and "repair the damage" wreaked by the previous leftist administration, Education Minister Niki Kerameus has told Kathimerini in her first interview. 

No sooner had newly installed Education Minister Niki Kerameus said that the conservative government intends to revoke a decision by the previous administration to establish a fourth law school in Patra in western Greece, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras reacted by accusing New Democracy of pandering to private interests.

The education reforms put forward by the new conservative government aspire to break the deadlock left behind by the populist policies of its leftist predecessors.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (l) and Education Minister Niki Kerameus are seen outside the Education Ministry Friday. The new government announced its intention to scrap the so-called university asylum law and to freeze plans to establish a fourth law school in Patra, western Greece.

On a visit to the education ministry on Friday with minister Niki Kerameus, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowed to improve the lives of Greeks by upgrading the education system.

"For me, education is the absolute political priority," Mitsotakis said. "Our goal is to link education to the job market," Mitsotakis said, adding that he aimed to "improve the lives of every Greek." 

The leadership of a high-level council of rectors and the Federation of University Lecturers and Researchers (POSDEP) have approved the government's intention to abolish the so-called university asylum law - which bans police from entering campuses - after a series of meetings with new Education Minister Niki Kerameus.

The gulf between the leftist-led coalition and most opposition parties regarding the prospect of a constitutional revision that would allow private universities to operate in Greece was clear on Wednesday during the second day of a committee-level debate in Parliament on the subject. 

The publication of a report by an expert committee on lawlessness at Greek universities sparked a vehement political exchange on Thursday, with conservative New Democracy slamming the recommendations as uninspired and inadequate. 

Greece's conservative opposition New Democracy party is more popular than the ruling left-wing Syriza for the first time in at least a year, two surveys show.

A poll published Jan. 17 in the Proto Thema weekly placed ND on 21.3 percent against Syriza's 18 percent, while a survey Saturday for the Parapolitika newspaper showed the conservatives with 23.6 percent against 19.9 percent.

President of main opposition New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis set party’s new leadership team.

Former Minister Nikos Dendias is the new parliamentary spokesperson while MP Giorgos Koumoutsakos is party’s spokesperson. Both of them supported Mitsotakis’ opponent in the battle for ND leadership, Vangelis Meimarakis.