Andreas Papandreou

Something's changed in the tough world of politics, and not just in Greece. Up until approximately a decade ago, few if any European politicians who had risen high through the ranks ever believed they might need to get a regular job someday. Politics was a closed system that ensured a degree of protection and relative permanence.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis proved to be the right man at the right time when he was elected to lead New Democracy in 2016. The party needed someone who knew the mechanisms of politics from an early age and, at the same time, was seen as an outsider, a technocrat who could deal with the populism of the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government.

The system of simple proportional representation used in the May 21 elections was a wasteful, inconvenient and costly choice - a price we paid due to the opportunism of SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, which mirrored the opportunism of the late socialist leader Andreas Papandreou.

Greece turned a page yesterday. Beyond New Democracy's resounding victory, which is due mainly to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, two big circles came to a close with Sunday's election: the Metapolitefsi and Greece's bankruptcy.

Greeks were voting on Sunday for a new government in a poll likely to be inconclusive, setting the stage for either a coalition administration or new elections in about a month's time.

While opinion polls have placed the ruling conservative New Democracy party ahead, a change to the country's electoral system means it is likely to fall short of an absolute majority.

Ten years after the delivery of the last major extension of Line 2 of the Athens metro, which today connects Anthoupolis with Ellinikon, a new esxtension is on the way. Attiko Metro yesterday turned the hourglass of the tender for the extension to Ilion with approximately 4 km of new line and three new stations.

Fatalists, not entirely unjustifiably, might invoke the hapless fate that constantly pursues us.

Every time Greece tries to take a breath and stand on its feet, something happens and it loses its way.

Dimitris Tsovolas passed away at the age of 79, after a difficult battle with cancer.

Dimitris Tsovolas was hospitalized in the last few days at the Attica Hospital. He was intubated in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

He was born in 1942 in Melissourgoi, Arta.

He had studied law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and was a distinguished lawyer.

By George Gilson

The centre-left Movement for Change Party (KINAL, formerly Pasok) today approved and certified six candidates for the party leadership race after examining the signatures submitted in support of each candidate.

By Dimitris Chondros

Former prime minister George Papandreou is poised to announce his candidacy for the leadership of the centre left Movement for Change party (KINAL).

Papandreou held talks with all the other candidates over the weekend and today, when he met with MEP Nikos Androulakis and Vasilis Kegeroglou, the secretary of KINAL's parliamentary group.