Marika Mitsotakis

A victory by conservative New Democracy in upcoming general elections would wipe out Greece's "country risk" for potential investors and make it incomparably more attractive for direct foreign investment, ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday following talks in Athens with representatives of large German businesses.

Opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis believes the government will not wait until the last possible time - next October - to call an election, but will move up the polls to May 26, to coincide with the elections for local and regional councils and the European Parliament.

In a nod to New Democracy chief Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of the European People's Party (EPP) said on Thursday that Greece could be granted smaller primary surplus targets if he is elected president of the European Commission in May on the condition that the country has a growth-friendly government.

The decision by New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis to back the government initiative to segment constituencies in the Greek capital required political courage.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday discussed ways to further enhance strategic cooperation between Greece and Israel, as well as the issue of the two Greek soldiers that have been held in Turkey without charge since early March.

In a speech in Karditsa, central Greece, conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared that the problems of ruling SYRIZA should not become Greece's problems. 

"Greece will move forward, we Greeks deserve better than this," he said, saying that ND had a plan to boost growth and tackle joblessness which is particularly high in some provincial parts of Greece. 

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pledged, in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, that he would appoint no relatives to his cabinet or to key state positions in the event that the conservatives come to power.

The European Parliament named one of its chambers after the late former conservative prime minister Constantinos Mitsotakis in a special ceremony on Thursday. A marble plaque was unveiled by German MEP and head of the European People's Party Manfred Weber and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.

A decision by prison authorities to grant a two-day furlough to convicted November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas raised a storm of reactions on Thursday, foremost from New Democracy lawmaker Dora Bakoyannis, whose husband, Pavlos Bakoyannis, was gunned down by the radical Marxist group outside his downtown Athens office in 1989.

“All names contained in the Paradise Papers will be scrutinized on the basis of the law,” said government spokesman, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos on Tuesday, in light of the recent revelations.