Alexis Tsipras

Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas announced on Friday that a House committee probing alleged meddling by former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos in the Novartis investigation will not meet next Tuesday, as it was planned, to allow time for main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to select the replacements for the two party MPs who were ejected this week.

Throughout the world, opposition parties oppose. They oppose policy, point out government errors, expose their rivals, put forward proposals etc. What the main opposition in Greece does, though, is threaten.

Greek MPs have approved a government bill aimed at easing pressure on the Aegean islands by speeding up asylum procedures and returns of migrants not meriting international protection to Turkey.
The bill was backed by MPs from New Democracy and the center-left Movement for Change alliance. SYRIZA, the Greek Communist Party (KKE), Greek Solution and Mera25 voted against.

Greek MPs were on Thursday night poised to approve a government bill aimed at easing pressure on the Aegean islands by speeding up asylum procedures and returns of migrants not meriting international protection to Turkey. 

Leftist opposition leader Alexis Tsipras on Thursday accused the conservative administration of "making a mess" of the immigration crisis, while also saying that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis indulged in far-right populism on the issue before coming to power.

Political tensions over the Novartis investigation simmered on Wednesday after former premier and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras wrote to Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas to complain about the exemption of leftist MPs Pavlos Polakis and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos from a House committee probing alleged meddling in the investigation.

In a letter to Parliament Speaker Constantinos Tasoulas, former prime minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras complained about the exemption of leftist MPs Pavlos Polakis and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos from a parliamentary committee probing alleged meddling in the Novartis investigation.

MPs were poised on Thursrday to approve the government's growth bill, which aims to lift obstacles to investment amid protests by workers who fear that the reforms will undermine labor rights.

The vote took place following a tense debate in the House during which opposition leaders took turns in condemning the legislation while a succession of ministers sought to defend it.

A new opinion poll carried out by Pulse on behalf of Skai shows conservative New Democracy holding a 13.5-percentage point lead over leftist SYRIZA while indicating that initiatives by the ND administration for tax cuts and voting rights for diaspora Greeks have been well received.

Following a session of its political secretariat Friday, the main leftist opposition SYRIZA party shifted position on New Democracy's initiative to grant full voting rights to diaspora Greeks, indicating that it could compromise on the basis of proposals made by the Communist Party (KKE) and the MeRA25 party of former leftist finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.