Zoe Konstantopoulou

Free from the constraints of public office, former speaker of the Greek Parliament Zoe Konstantopoulou went out on a limb and enjoyed the spirit of the holiday season with a night out on the town. Saturday, December 19, she was carried away with the music of singers Eleftheria Arvanitaki and Nikos Portokaloglou.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talked to Paul Mason, the economics editor at Channel 4 News, and said his government could have been “braver” during its bailout negotiations with the European Union.

“I think we lost time, and at the end we were out of force and out of money,” he says. “If we knew that we would have made more brave decisions at the beginning”.

The Radical Left Coalition’s (SYRIZA) transition from a vibrant, youthful idealistic party to a supporter of the third bailout has caused existential problems amongst its younger members.

September’s victory lacked the jubilance of the January election with most of its younger set choosing to distance itself from the party’s failed promises and rapid U-turn to austerity.

Greek Parliament currently employs at least fifteen employees who were found to have provided fake degrees when they applied for the job. The revelation came on Wednesday following a review of the qualifications of civil servants working at Parliament House.

Greek Education Minister Nikos Filis is a persona non grata following comments made on private STAR TV where he refuted the occurence of the Pontic Genocide that resulted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Pontic Greeks of the Black Sea region by Turks almost a century ago.

The government is proceeding to dismiss the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) as part of a drive to get rid of undesirable officials through legal interventions and amendment. 

Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) MP Nikos Voutsis was elected new Parliamentary president on Sunday by 181 MPs. 113 deputies cast a blank vote and 3 ballots were rendered invaled. There were three abstentions.

Combative outgoing Parliament president Zoe Konstantopoulou is apparently leaving her post with a “bang”, days before she is replaced. The outspoken leftist lawmaker failed to get elected with the newly formed Popular Unity party in the Sept. 20 ballot.

The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) is readying its new government following the party’s recent election triumph – for the second time this year after its first election win on January 25.

Stavros Theodorakis leader of centrist party ‘To Potami’ (River) called on the Greek people to turn their backs on the other political forces and support his political party to reach third place in the September 20 elections. During his cross-channel television press conference, Wednesday Theodorakis set the goal of his party at 10% of the votes.