LAOS party

An inter-party committee that convenes at the Interior Ministry has decided that the sole parliamentary elections debate will be held on 1 July between PM and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata, KKE Greek Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas, and Centrists' Union leader Vasilis Leventis.

An Athens misdemeanors court Thursday handed a two-year suspended prison sentence to Giorgos Karatzaferis, the former leader of the nationalist LAOS party, after finding him guilty of slandering Deputy Interior Minister Marina Chrysoveloni.

Leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday accused New Democracy opposition of "pursuing a far-right agenda" by seeking to connect the ongoing refugee crisis with the threat of terrorism.

Main opposition conservative New Democracy members will head to the polling booths on Sunday, November 22, to elect their party leader. 781,136 liberal supporters (around a third of the party’s voters) had shown up to vote in the first internal elections held by liberals in November 2009 in relation to the October elections held in that same year.

The leader of the right-wing LAOS party, Giorgos Karatzaferis, was indicted on Thursday on charges of making inaccurate declarations of assets (?pothen esches?) for three years and for involvement in an offshore firm, which is prohibited for politicians.

An investigation by a parliamentary committee into the “pothen esches” (declaration of source of wealth) forms submitted by the leader of the right-wing LAOS party, Giorgos Karatzaferis, which is expected to be completed by Wednesday, points toward the existence of millions of dollars in foreign-based bank accounts, sources indicated on Monday.

By Costas Iordanidis

The ongoing crisis has challenged the fundamentals of Greece’s political system – a situation to which parties have often responded with cheap tricks.