Politics of Greece

Police in Greece say they have destroyed a bomb by controlled explosion outside a tax office in western Athens, following overnight warning calls to a television station and news website. There was no damage or injuries.

The government is to draft legislation aimed at creating greater transparency regarding party finances and to reduce the total funding they receive to around 10 million euros a year, sources told Sunday’s Kathimerini.

A schoolteacher chants anti-austerity slogans with a loudspeaker during a sitting protest in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, on Friday.

A contentious provision that would lead to any immigrants who make false claims against law enforcement officers being deported from Greece is likely to be brought to Parliament for a third time, the government’s general secretary Takis Baltakos said on Friday.

The government's general secretary Panayiotis Baltakos, a close aide to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, on Friday met with Alternate Agricultural Development Minister Maximos Harakopoulos in a bid to overcome the latter's opposition to a provision in a multi-bill of reforms agreed with the troika that extends the shelf life of fresh milk.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras takes part in a news conference after a Tripartite Social Summit ahead of a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, on Thursday.

Leftist opposition SYRIZA has slammed a government deal with the troika of foreign lenders earlier this week calling it a “public relations stunt” designed to prevent a conservative defeat in the coming elections.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday insisted that no new austerity measures will be required as part of a deal reached earlier in the day between the Greek government and troika inspectors following seven months of tough negotiations.

"Today a long period of tribulations has ended, and a new beginning is being made," Samaras said.

By Antonis Galanopoulos, Marcus Bensasson & Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece will probably sell bonds for the first time in four years before May as the nation seeks to rebuild its finances following an international bailout, Infrastructure Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said.

With European and local authority elections looming, the political exchanges between co-ruling New Democracy and the main leftist opposition SYRIZA have intensified even as a new party casting itself as anti-establishment appears to be drawing support from both parties, according to opinion polls.