Gabriel Sakellaridis

Greece holds a general election Sunday, called three months early by left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after he suffered a stinging defeat in European Parliament elections in May to conservative rivals who appear to be strengthening their position according to recent opinion polls.

The political secretariat of ruling SYRIZA party is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
The meeting at the party's downtown Athens offices on Koumoundourou Square will be chaired by the prime minister and SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras.

The snap elections announced late Sunday night by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after the defeat his party suffered in the European Elections will most likely be held on June 30, according to sources.

The government has proposed that a parliamentary inquiry be set up to investigate allegations that two ex-prime ministers and eight former ministers accepted bribes from Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, with the likely outcome being that the case will be referred back to the justice system.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his migration minister came under a hail of fire Monday from a radical faction within SYRIZA over the plight of the thousands of refugees and migrants stranded in Greece.

As Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned following his referendum defeat, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for greater political and economic solidarity among member states of the European Union.

Up until a few days ago it seemed that Greece's SYRIZA-led government saw no reason to resort to an early election. In fact, ruling officials seemed as if they would go togreat lengths to maintain their grip on power.

The former Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis says he is “laughing” at ludicrous publications that want him “married” to an unnamed man that isn’t described but is pictured to be the Harvard-educated Panagiotis Angelopoulos, the lefty son of powerful businesswoman Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki.

No-one has been hurt after a bomb exploded near the Federation of Greek Enterprises' building in Athens, Geeece.

The blast occurred in the small hours of Tuesday near the Syntagma Square in downtown Athens where Parliament is located, local media outlets report.

Windows of nearby buildings were damaged by the explosion.

When Gabriel Sakellaridis resigned as an MP but not from the party, a number of political analysts wondered why he had prefered to remain in a party whose policies he no longer espouses. His choice of resigning rather than voting against the bailout measures he is against can be seen as “moral” by most.