Andreas Papandreou

What no other prime minister dared to do, from the late Andreas Papandreou and his minister of education Antonis Tritsis in the 1980s, to Alexis Tsipras in the previous four and a half years - despite their stated intentions - was done by Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He clashed with the Church of Greece over the new coronavirus, and did not back down.

Greek-French relations were forged in critical and transitional periods in our country's history.

In 1974 following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the national disaster that led to the fall of the Greek junta, PM Constantine Karamanlis approached France and even adjusted Greece's defence policy to the French model.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has nominated Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, the first woman chief justice of the Council of State, to be the first woman president of the Hellenic Republic.

The surprise nomination was announced by the PM in a nationally televised address on the evening of 15 January.

It's 1980. After six years in the prime minister's seat, Constantine Karamanlis becomes president, leaving behind a divided party and a financially troubled country - it's only a few months since the second oil crisis in the summer of 1979. Greece is going through political upheaval: strikes, university sit-ins, and near-daily protests.

The funeral of prominent publisher Antonis Livanis, who died last week at the age of 94, will take place at Athens' First Cemetery on Monday, following a service at the capital's Metropolitan Cathedral.

"Though due to my age I have withdrawn fro public affairs, the interview two days ago of Turkish-Cypriot leader Akinci with Ta Nea forces me to marshal my forces and speak again,» said famed composer and left-wing icon Mikis Theodorakis in an opinion piece that was widely discussed

Former Prime Minister Costas Simitis has warned that given the heightened tensions in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara may try to set up a military clash as it did when he was PM in 1996.

Simitis succeeded a dying Andreas Papandreou after his resignation in mid-January and within days Turkey sent commandos to land on one of the two Imia islets that belong to Greece.

So many people seem to have reached breaking point, slammed physically and mentally by exhaustion. The pressure on the people of a country that is bankrupt on so many different levels is calculable in megatons; more so because whatever light may be shimmering at the end of the tunnel is constantly being blocked out by toxic and torpid forces.

Tuesday, February 5 marked the centenary of the birth of Andreas Papandreou, Greece's first socialist prime minister and an extraordinary figure of 20th century European politics. Whether in or out of office, Papandreou dominated Greek political life for a generation.

Like it or not, we are firmly at a point when the all-powerful political leaders and parties of the type that emerged in the wake of World War II and up to 2010-11 are a thing of the past.