Prokopis Pavlopoulos

The overarching question in Greek politics on the eve of the European Parliament and local elections of 26 May was when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will call the general election.

Ushering in a new era in the relationship between Athens and the Phanar, Greek Archbishop Ieronymos and visiting Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios together attended the inauguration of a gerontology center in the town of Dilesi in Viotia, central Greece, on Thursday. Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos was also at the event. 

Archbishop Ieronymos received Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios on Wednesday in what has been described as a visit intended to the bury the hatchet between Athens and the Phanar. 

Vartholomaios described the thaw in relations between the two leaders saying, "Blood cannot be turned into water."

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios is expected in Athens on Wednesday for talks with Greek Archbishop Ieronymos that are widely expected to usher in a new era in relations between the Church of Greece and the Phanar.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday met with China's Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) during a state visit to China, state-run Athens-Macedonia (ANA-MPA) news agency reports.

Pavlopoulos discussed Greece's key foreign policy issues, particularly the Cyprus problem, ANA-MPA said.

Twenty one EU heads of state, including Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, called on EU citizens to exercise their right to vote at the European Parliament elections on May 26, in a joint appeal released on Thursday, May 9, which coincides with Europe Day and the 74th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Drawings scratched on the walls of the 4 Korai street prison used by the Gestapo secret police during World War II, in Athens, Thursday. Thousands of Greeks were held in this facility during the Nazi occupation. During WWII, Greece lost 10 percent of its population, almost one million people, of which 400,000 were starved to death, according to statistics.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday received US Senator Robert Menendez in a meeting that was also attended by US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.

Menendez, a Democrat, and Republican Senator Marco Rubio are the architects of the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act which aims to reshape US strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos today demanded the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum and blasted Lord Elgin's hacking off of the magnificent sculptures as an act of cultural vandalism.

Greece's president called on Monday for Britain to free the Parthenon marbles from the "murky prison" of its national museum, upping the rhetoric in a near 200-year-old campaign for the sculptures' return.