Andreas Papandreou

Presenting his government's vision for the future in Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the implementation of the fourth cycle of Greece's modernization. 

Something's changed in the tough world of politics, and not just in Greece. Up until approximately a decade ago, few if any European politicians who had risen high through the ranks ever believed they might need to get a regular job someday. Politics was a closed system that ensured a degree of protection and relative permanence.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis proved to be the right man at the right time when he was elected to lead New Democracy in 2016. The party needed someone who knew the mechanisms of politics from an early age and, at the same time, was seen as an outsider, a technocrat who could deal with the populism of the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government.

Greece turned a page yesterday. Beyond New Democracy's resounding victory, which is due mainly to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, two big circles came to a close with Sunday's election: the Metapolitefsi and Greece's bankruptcy.

Greeks were voting on Sunday for a new government in a poll likely to be inconclusive, setting the stage for either a coalition administration or new elections in about a month's time.

While opinion polls have placed the ruling conservative New Democracy party ahead, a change to the country's electoral system means it is likely to fall short of an absolute majority.

Fatalists, not entirely unjustifiably, might invoke the hapless fate that constantly pursues us.

Every time Greece tries to take a breath and stand on its feet, something happens and it loses its way.

Now that George Papandreou is returning to the central political scene, the winner of the 2009 elections with a percentage that would be envied by his political opponents (PASOK 43.92% and 160 seats, second party ND with 33.47% and 91 seats), inevitably our mind goes back to that time and the bleak years of the memoranda that followed.

By George Gilson

The centre-left Movement for Change Party (KINAL, formerly Pasok) today approved and certified six candidates for the party leadership race after examining the signatures submitted in support of each candidate.

By Dimitris Chondros

Former prime minister George Papandreou is poised to announce his candidacy for the leadership of the centre left Movement for Change party (KINAL).

Papandreou held talks with all the other candidates over the weekend and today, when he met with MEP Nikos Androulakis and Vasilis Kegeroglou, the secretary of KINAL's parliamentary group.

Long-time PASOK minister and deputy Akis Tsohatzopoulos died on Friday at the age of 82. He had been hospitalized over the recent period, with the cause of death being heart failure.