Olga Gerovasili

SYRIZA MP and former minister Olga Gerovasili has announced her candidacy for the leadership of the party, challenging leader Stefanos Kasselakis.

"To the president's challenge, I reply: present. As a candidate for the leadership of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance," Gerovasili said Saturday evening at the party congress.

After the withdrawal of Dionysis Temponeras, SYRIZA's leadership battle is likely to end up being a race for two after Olga Gerovasili's candidature with the behind-the-scenes support of former leader Alexis Tsipras, against the incumbent Stefanos Kasselakis.

The meetings of executives with Olga Gerovasili and the goal of achieving unified expression in "a common candidacy"

SYRIZA MP and member of the political secretariat, the top executive of the leftist opposition, Costas Zachariadis, has criticized the stance of party chief Stefanos Kasselakis, as expressed on the opening day of the party's congress, as divisive, while pointing to Olga Gerovasili as a potential challenger to his leadership.

Following the earlier re-election of Konstantinos Tasoulas as parliamentary speaker, MPs have selected seven deputy speakers from five of the eight parties represented in the chamber.

The nominees from the extreme-right parties Niki and Spartans, as well as from anti-establishment Course of Freedom, failed to garner enough votes to be elected deputy speakers.

Re-elected Parliament President Konstantinos Tasoulas has agreed to change the seating arrangements in the House after SYRIZA protested about the decision to place the lawmakers of the far-right Spartans between those of the leftist main opposition. 

A group of unknown assailants involved in incidents during the protest rallies in Athens vandalized the car of SYRIZA representative Olga Gerovasili on Thursday. 

Greek law enforcement officers will be equipped with the latest technology in police radios thanks to a donation from the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The initiative is a response to concerns that the analogue two-way radios currently used by the Greek force are not secure and can experience interference from other radio systems.

The Hellenic Police (ELAS) was not aware of the anti-drug operation conducted by the Coast Guard in the central Athenian district of Exarchia on Thursday night, where two officers were injured in an ambush by masked men, Citizens' Protection Minister Olga Gerovasili said on Friday.
"ELAS didn't go there, it was not informed," she reportedly told radio station News247.

Eight months after the diastrous Mati wildfire which claimed 100 lives and ahead of the summer fire season Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras today announced the hiring of nearly 1,000 more firefighters.