Simos Kedikoglou

The prospect of creating a sericulture park in northern Evia, an ambitious project of national and local importance with multiple benefits, but also the simultaneous recovery of Greek sericulture and silk industry, was expounded upon by the Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development and Food, Mr. Simos Kedikoglou, in a meeting with relevant agencies.

The die is cast. The reshuffle is now a fact and it held surprises.

At first, an autonomous Ministry of Civil Protection was set up, with a surprise minister: Retired Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis.

A contentious amendment including offsets in a deal to upgrade the Hellenic Air Force fleet of F-16 fighter jets will be debated at the Parliament's Military Procurements Committee following strong reaction from the conservative opposition on Wednesday.

"Let's talk about this, so that all queries can be solved," Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told the House.

Greece's main New Democracy opposition on Wednesday attacked Defense Minister Panos Kammenos over an amendment that included offsets in a deal to upgrade the Hellenic Air Force fleet of F-16 fighter jets.

A meeting between Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Premier Evangelos Venizelos on Thursday led to the coalition confirming that there will be a cabinet reshuffle, although a date for the ministerial changes was not set.

Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou on Tuesday said the coalition has "absolutely no intention" of calling early elections following calls for snap polls from opposition SYRIZA in the wake of the leftist party's electoral victory in Sunday's elections for local government and European Parliament.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has labelled “unconstitutional” a request by SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras for early general elections.

Venizelos held a news conference shortly after Tsipras met with President Karolos Papoulias, where he suggested that the government lacked the legitimacy to continue. Tsipras called for national elections “as soon as possible.”

SYRIZA gained the first electoral victory in its history on Sunday as it came first in the European Parliament vote but failed to establish a big enough gap over the coalition, for which PASOK performed better than expected, to suggest that the government’s stability is in question.

The Greek police’s counterterrorism squad was investigating an apparent attack on the headquarters of PASOK, the junior coalition partner, on Sunday after two bullets were found to have pierced its windows.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said on Thursday that an account on Twitter bearing his name was fake and that he would be filing legal action against whoever was responsible for creating and running it.

Kedikoglou said he has never had an account on the social networking site.