Nikos Kotzias

Behind-the-scenes ferment, meaningful appearances, and surprise set the scene for the Syriza Progressive Alliance’s stance towards the selection of the right person for the Presidency of the Republic, which is proving to be a political milestone if not a catalyst for broader developments.

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.

A major disruption within the SYRIZA Progressive Alliance was triggered by the news of Eyaggelos Apostolakis’ decision to leave the party. The admiral’s move took both the party’s new chairman, Socrates Famellos, and the natural leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, by surprise, as he announced his intentions late yesterday afternoon.

The Timeline

From the very first days of his presence at the helm of Koumoundourou, the new party chairman, Socrates Famellos, has been moving towards a “reliable and large SYRIZA“, as his contacts and meetings with MPs and executives inside and outside the party’s walls have been successive in recent hours.

Former prime minister and leader of leftist SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, was awarded the Nikos Nikiforidis Peace Prize on Tuesday for the Prespa Agreement that was reached in 2018 between Greece and the then Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), resolving a long-standing dispute between the two countries./p>

The condemnation of populism was one of the main conclusions of the recent conference on the 50-year anniversary of the "Metapolistefsi" (the period since the restoration of democracy) co-organized by Kathimerini. The issue came to the fore in the debate on foreign policy.

One of the areas where Greece made some of its greatest strides during the past 50 years has been in foreign policy, the second day of the "50 Years of the Metapolitefsi" conference heard on Friday.

The political secretariat of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance is scheduled to convene early next week, once the three-day process of policy statements in parliament concludes. The meeting is in preparation for the upcoming central committee meeting of the party, which is slated for July 15-16.

I have been doing this job long enough not to be surprised by the ruthlessness so vividly displayed in the infamous recorded conversation about the deadly 2018 wildfire in Mati.

Greece's former defense minister Panos Kammenos testified before a corruption prosecutor on Friday as a witness in connection with allegations against former foreign minister Nikos Kotzias that a contract for issuing visas was fixed under the latter's watch.