Dimitris Papadimoulis

Dimitris Papadimoulis announced his retirement from politics via a post on Twitter after ten consecutive years as Vice President of the European Parliament. “I will continue, away from elected offices, as an active citizen,” Papadimoulis stated.

Prominent leftist European Parliament lawmaker Dimitris Papadimoulis announced on Monday he was retiring from politics, after serving twenty years in Brussels. 

"I will continue, far from elected office, to serve the same values ​​as an active citizen," he said in a brief statement posted on his official account on X. 

European Parliament Vice-President Dimitris Papadimoulis said Sunday he will represent in that assembly the new Parliamentary group created by 11 MPs who defected from the main opposition SYRIZA party.

Following its disastrous showing in the May 21 election, where it lost more than 11 percentage points, main opposition SYRIZA is now talking about preventing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party from becoming too powerful by clawing back some of the 20-percentage point gap separating the two big parties.

The way has been paved for EU funding of border infrastructure such as the Evros fence in northeastern Greece after an amendment introduced by the European People's Party was voted through in Strasbourg. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called on SYRIZA to take a clear stance about the the construction of the fence on the Evros land border with Turkey. 

The fence along the Evros River bordering Turkey has been elevated to the status of a key election issue that highlights the migration problem.

There is a social class dimension to the way the new coronavirus is affecting the population, and by that of course I do not mean the indirect revanchism of MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis, of the main opposition SYRIZA party, who almost celebrated the fact that the outbreak in our country started from a woman who returned from a trip to Milan and a student in a private school in Athens.

A video showing SYRIZA MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis at a supermarket with two shopping carts stacked with supplies sparked an outcry on social media on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was meeting with senior government ministers and party officials at SYRIZA's headquarters on Sunday after a European Parliament projection indicated major losses for the incumbent leftists.
Tsipras was expected to make statements to the press after the meeting.