Politics of Greece

By Jonathan Stearns

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said his country will avoid Argentina’s fate of staying mired in economic troubles more than a decade after defaulting on debt.

An attack against University of Macedonia professor Nikos Marantzidis in a Thessaloniki café late on Tuesday was carried out in the presence of Michalis Peglis, an advisor to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Taking stock of Greece’s six-month European Union presidency on the day before Italy takes over, Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Monday called it “successful,” noting it had paved the way for the country to finally emerge from a protracted financial crisis.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos on Monday met to discuss a series of prior actions that Greece must honor in order to clinch two tranches of rescue loans worth 2 billion euros with talks believed to have focused on controversial plans for the part-privatization of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), which is to be debated in Parliament this week.

Coalition leaders Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos are due to met on Monday at 6 p.m. for talks.
Among the main topics of discussion will be the legislation the government is preparing to spin off part of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), which w... ...

 PM, Venizelos to discuss prior actions

The government faces a difficult week as a controversial bill foreseeing the part-privatization of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) is set to go to Parliament on Wednesday amid vehement opposition by leftist SYRIZA and unionists to the measure, one of a series of so-called prior actions that Athens has pledged to the troika.

The testimony of Spyros Travlos, a former senior Defense Ministry official, in connection to a scandal which erupted over German submarine purchases, has been postponed for July 11 after he asked for more time to prepare his defense.

By Costas Iordanidis

The establishment of a monarch-free democracy was hailed as one of the biggest achievements of the Metapolitefsi era in Greece. It is argued that by changing the regime, the root of evil was removed, staving off the kind of national crises and dramas caused by crown intervention. We won’t argue the point: We are in a crisis right now, so enough said.

By Hugo Dixon *

Is Greece losing its reform drive? Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has stuck to a harsh fitness program for two years. But just as it is bearing fruit, he has sidelined some reformers in a reshuffle. There is only one viable path to redemption for Athens: stick to the straight and narrow.

The state of Greek universities can only be described as completely lamentable.