George Papandreou

Former PASOK leader and ex-prime minister George Papandreou has said that he was unable to attend the state funeral of his predecessor Costas Simitis as he was on a trip to China.

"Unfortunately, my obligations in China, where I am, did not allow me to return to Greece in time to participate in the final farewell," Papandreou said in a Facebook post.

Costas Simitis, who headed Greece's 1996-2004 socialist government as prime minister, has died at age 88.

1. New Building Code

The insatiable lust for more height

Most prime ministers in the post-dictatorship period have wanted to come to some form of agreement with Turkey. Konstantinos Karamanlis certainly did, Andreas Papandreou made a solid effort at Davos, Konstantinos Mitsotakis thought of it constantly and Kostas Simitis pursued it systematically.

"Freedom" is a word that is intrinsically associated with the life of Angela Merkel. From her formative years in East Germany to her last term as chancellor, which coincided with Donald Trump's first US presidency, she has constantly been called upon to defend one of humanity's greatest values.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's highly anticipated memoir, "Freedom", set to be released in Greek by Metaichmio on Tuesday, includes recollections of her interactions with three former Greek prime ministers during the Greek debt crisis of the previous decade.

The process of moving PASOK’s offices in Parliament began at noon on Friday, to those with the number “69” where SYRIZA was located until yesterday, and traditionally the party that is in the position of the main opposition is entitled to it.

It is a tactical and long-term strategic error for a former prime minister to create a new, inevitably small party simply because he wants to express the clarity of his views, and this not only concerns Antonis Samaras, who was recently expelled from the ruling conservatives for questioning the government's policies.

New spatial arrangements and office moves are taking place within the Greek Parliament, following the latest split in SYRIZA after the defection of Theodora Tzakri and Giota Poulou. As a result, PASOK has now become the official opposition party, as it has the second-highest number of seats in Parliament.

The new split in the SYRIZA parliamentary group has led to the loss of the official opposition title without the need for an election for the first time in post-junta history.