Nikos Androulakis

The leaders of the five parties contesting the June 25 election after making it into Parliament in the May 21 ballot will be locking horns in a televised debate, it was announced on Tuesday.

The debate will be aired by state broadcaster ERT on June 15, the Interparty Committee, which met at the Interior Ministry in Athens on Tuesday morning, decided.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis resumed his pre-election campaign tour on Tuesday, after testing negative for Covid. Mitsotakis posted a photo on his personal Instagram account with the negative test result, calling it "The good news of the day."

He had tested positive for the virus on Friday and had to cancel several events, including a planned trip to Mount Athos.

Nikos Androulakis, leader of the Socialist PASOK-Movement of Change, said the party's program focuses on sustainable development and the green transition as the only way to limit the consequences of climate change. 

Nikos Androulakis, the leader of PASOK, which came third in the May 21 elections, addressed the party's central political committee and new parliamentary group on Sunday. The meeting was attended by candidates and PASOK officials from all parts of Greece.

Haris Kastanidis, a lawmaker with socialist PASOK, expressed anger at party leader Nikos Androulakis' decision - after standing as a candidate in Thessaloniki, Iraklio on Crete (where he was born) and the Southern Electoral District of Athens in the May 21 election - to keep his seat in the 1st Constituency of Thessaloniki.

PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis emphasized again on Thursday that the party is not interested in forming a coalition with ruling New Democracy, "even if two or three seats are needed to form a government." 

A caretaker government led by a judge and with non-politicians at the crucial posts will be sworn in Thursday.

Dora Antoniou, Kathimerini's political editor, joins Thanos Davelis to break down what went wrong for SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras in Sunday's elections, what this defeat means for the party looking ahead, and whether this is now PASOK and Nikos Androulakis' big chance to reclaim the center-left. 

Nikos Androulakis, the socialist PASOK leader, has turned down the third exploratory mandate to form a government in a meeting with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

"I'm turning down the mandate I received, as there are no opportunities for government convergences on the basis of policy agreements," he said after the meeting.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will receive the leader of PASOK-Movement for Change Nikos Androulakis on Tuesday at 6.30 p.m. on Tuesday to present him with the third exploratory mandate to form a government, according to article 37 of the Greek Constitution.