Greece

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann is visiting Athens this week to help Greece tackle its huge refugee problem.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will accompany the Austrian leader to the island of Lesbos in the east Aegean, one of the “hotspots” where refugees are registered before being relocated to other EU countries.

Our Lady of Tinos church, considered the capital of religious tourism in Greece, draws flocks of the faithful to the Aegean island. They come come to pray for a miracle to their woes bringing tamata (votive offerings), usually trinkets made of precious metals.

There is confusion in Greece concerning the 23% tax hike to be imposed on private education in Greece. “The 23% VAT tax in private education is being re-examined to ensure its just application,” stated a ministerial announcement. “As a first step, it has been decided that it should not be imposed on private preschools.”

It was an exciting one. In July with their country in a deep economic crisis, Greeks were asked by their government to say "no" to the "ultimatums and blackmail of the country's creditors." This was a leftist-led Syriza government who had managed to win the vote only six months before by promising to magically end austerity through tough and uncompromising negotiations.

By Mary Sinanidis

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will open the debate on the government’s policy program at 7.30 p.m. on Monday when he addresses the parliamentary plenum. The debate is to run for three days and will be completed with a voting session at midnight on Wednesday when a vote of confidence will be given to the Greek government.

“The government has a clear mandate for a four-year term to make the great changes and reforms that Greece needs”, Prime Minister and leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras stressed in his address to the Parliamentary Group of his party.

The election committee of New Democracy reconsidered the rejection of Adonis Georgiadis’s candidacy during today’s meeting and decided to accept his submission.

The long list with the required reforms that Greece has to implement has been approved during Euroworking Group in order to proceed to the disbursement of 2 billion euros.

The election committee of New Democracy will reconvene at 09.30 on Saturday to decide on whether to accept the rejected fourth candidacy of New Democracy MP Adonis Georgiadis, after disapproving comments from all three candidates and the former ND leader Antonis Samaras.