New Democracy

New Left, the party created out of a split in the main opposition SYRIZA party, will hold an organizing meeting on January 12-13.

The meeting, to be held in Athens, will draw up a founding declaration and prepare a conference, to be held in late February, where the party's governing bodies will presumably be elected.

Just seven months after a triumphant reelection, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proceeded last Wednesday with "corrective moves," alarmed by opinion polls showing that public safety is citizens' second biggest concern after rising prices.

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has said that his party will table its own bill on marriage equality, following remarks by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that were widely interpreted as putting a brake on his government's plans to introduce same-sex marriage.

As political parties hammer out their strategies for the next five months leading up to the European Parliament elections, the primary focus is shifting to the opposition as ruling New Democracy maintains an unchallenged substantial lead. 

The controversy that followed New Democracy MP Angelos Syrigos' claim that some articles of the Lausanne Treaty - notably the one on the extent of the military presence on the eastern Aegean islands - were out of date, has brought attention to the uncertainty surrounding the text of the 1923 agreement that established the borders of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.

In response to the recent government reshuffle, opposition parties in Greece launched criticism against the administration. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis announced the changes on Wednesday afternoon.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appointed a new citizen protection minister on Wednesday, following a mini cabinet reshuffle in a bid to bolster the conservative administration's security agenda.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis backed New Democracy lawmaker Angelos Syrigos who was criticized by the main opposition for saying that the Treaty of Lausanne, a 1923 peace accord which, among other things, forged modern Greece and Turkey's borders, is mostly "outdated."

Before the tumultuous year of 2015, Greece actually came close to leaving the eurozone in 2012, following the election of Antonis Samaras as prime minister. Chancellor Angela Merkel was notably apprehensive about the New Democracy leader's pre-election campaign. 

Leftist opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis put the diaspora at the center of his new year's message on Sunday, while on a holiday visit to the United States.