Jorgo Chatzimarkakis

Aris Siliotopoulos (photo), a former New Democracy minister and MP who gave up his seat in Parliament to run in May's local elections for Athens mayor, said on Friday that he will not be running on the conservative ticket in the January 25 general elections.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis was named the Greek Foreign Ministry’s new Ambassador-at-Large, on Wednesday.

A German liberal MEP declared he would run for a Greek party he founded to protest over austerity policies applied to Athens.

"I've always felt torn between the two... the German side of my heart is so ashamed," Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, who has Greek roots, was quoted as saying by the EUObserver.