Antonis Samaras

After a week that saw Athens successfully tap international bond markets for the first time in four years, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras essentially ruled out the need for a third loan program for Greece, insisting that the markets’ positive response to last week bond’s issue is the first step toward the country emerging from its economic crisis.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (l) welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel (r) for a meeting at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, on Friday.

On her second visit to Athens in less than two years on Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged that the eurozone would discuss Greece’s debt sustainability later this year.

Greece has more opportunities than difficulties said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her opening remarks at a meeting of Greek start-up companies during a one-day visit to Athens on Friday.

Highlighting sectors such as agriculture, tourism and services, Merkel spoke of the challenge of attracting funding and taking advantage of new technologies.

The conservative-led government has finally announced a new policy that could breathe life into the country’s real economy.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited on Monday the General State Accounting Office and announced measures to provide some debt relief for thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises that will boost their cash flow.

Former government secretary general Takis Baltakos arrives at a prosecutor's office to give a testimony in Athens yesterday. Baltakos, a top aide to the Greek prime minister, resigned last week after a leaked video showed him suggesting the government had tried to press judges to jail lawmakers from the far-right Golden Dawn party.

American Jewish Committee executive director David Harris has labelled as “damning” the video of former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos speaking to Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris.

“What Mr. Baltakos did is an affront to Prime Minister Samaras and to the vast majority of the Greek people,” said Harris, according to the AJC’s website.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens on Friday afternoon, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said Friday while also expressing the German leader’s “admiration” for Greek efforts.

The coalition attempted on Friday to step out of the shadow cast by the revelations regarding ex-cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos’s contact with Golden Dawn, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras insisting he would not let the neo-Nazi party dictate the political agenda.

An Athens prosecutor on Thursday launched an investigation into a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday showing former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos appearing to accuse Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of trying to influence a judicial probe into the neofascist Golden Dawn.