Nikos Alivizatos

From Nikos Alivizatos' book "Beyond Article 16," I discovered that Greek higher education institutions were recognized as public legal entities after the civil war (1946-49), in a move designed to exclude communist professors.

Golden Dawn party MPs Nikos Michos (L), Ilias Panagiotaros (C) and Ilias Kasidiaris (R) walk away from the Court House of Athens, 2 October 2013. Photo: EPA/ALEXANDROS VLACHOS

Conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis pushed for a second election after failing to win an outright majority in legislative elections held on May 21.

A constitutional lawyer dismissed on Thursday a claim by jailed former Golden Dawn deputy leader Ilias Kasidiaris that he could run in the next elections with a coalition of independent candidates, saying it is another effort to bypass a court ban on his party and candidacy. 

If you walk into a tiger's cage, a friend quipped, make sure you don't touch the wild cat's whiskers. Put differently, when you challenge a more intelligent person than yourself to a public debate, do not attempt to underestimate their intelligence; you only risk exposing yourself to ridicule.

So much controversy has been stirred by a recent event titled "Are We Staying in Europe? Wiretaps, Rights and Rule of Law," that the discussion about it actually began before it even took place.

The resulting riots refocused attention on a controversial decision to resurrect a notorious motorized police brigade and triggered more talk of strengthening a mechanism to monitor police behaviour. But experts say its effectiveness depends on the readiness of those at the top to act.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday approved the expansion of the Greece 2021 committee, which is responsible for designing and supervising a program of celebrations to mark the bicentennial anniversary of Greece's War of Independence against Ottoman rule.

Citizens' Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis on Wednesday responded to a letter from jurist and academic Nikos Alivizatos, who heads a committee established by the minister to monitor police behavior, regarding allegations of police brutality during a crackdown on anarchist squats in the downtown Athens district of Koukaki earlier in the day.

New Democracy appears to be considering a proposal by Constitutional Law Professor Nikos Alivizatos for a "mini-review" of the Greek Constitution that could be initiated by the main opposition party and the Movement for Change coalition of centrist and center-left parties.

PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata is the winner in the runoff for the election of the head of the new center-left party, defeating rival Nikos Androulakis by a clear margin on Sunday, with officials expressing their satisfaction with the turnout once again.