Decades

A debate this week between the two winners of the first round of last Sunday's PASOK leadership election, incumbent leader Nikos Androulakis and Athens Mayor Haris Doukas, appears unlikely. 

“Androulakis doesn’t want the debate. After two days of negotiations, which seem to have been superficial from his side, his team announced today that the debate could not take place,” claim Doukas‘ associates.

Can PASOK position itself as a viable alternative to Kyriakos Mitsotakis' New Democracy? This will be the central question in the second round of the socialist party's leadership elections. While incumbent president Nikos Androulakis currently holds the lead, a turnaround by Haris Doukas, the mayor of Athens, is not out of the question.

An Afghan man was arrested in Oklahoma on suspicion of planning “terrorist attack” on the day of the Presidential Election, the US Justice Department announced yesterday (Tuesday).

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou is expected to present Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the formal mandate to form a government on Monday morning after his New Democracy party's resounding victory on Sunday night.

Mitsotakis is expected at the Presidential Palace in central Athens at 11 a.m. and will be sworn in as prime minister for his second term in office at 1 p.m.

Center-left PASOK has every reason to celebrate Sunday's result as it has increased its share of the vote by 50 percent over two election cycles.

The sense of elation was not least felt by its leader Nikos Androulakis, who has strengthened his hand.

The first exit poll by Kapa Research after Sunday's general elections, shows that Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his party have likely secured a safe outright majority to form a single-party government.

PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis called on Greeks to vote for his party on Sunday from the village of Arkalochori on Crete where he voted.

New Democracy, SYRIZA and PASOK closed the election race on Friday with different goals in view of Sunday's ballot.

For conservative ND, the main goal is to secure a comfortable outright majority in the region of 158 seats. It believes that the votes of young people and voters who live in areas other than their constituencies are key to achieving this.

Fears that the British economy is heading for recession mounted sharply after the Bank of England raised borrowing costs by more than anticipated.

The Bank of England on June 22 decided to lift its main interest rate by half a percentage point to a fresh 15-year high of 5 percent.