Greek government-debt crisis

Before the tumultuous year of 2015, Greece actually came close to leaving the eurozone in 2012, following the election of Antonis Samaras as prime minister. Chancellor Angela Merkel was notably apprehensive about the New Democracy leader's pre-election campaign. 

Without Wolfgang Schaeuble's strong political presence, it is doubtful that the eurozone would have been able to face the monumental challenge of an economic crisis within its own borders and, above all, cope with the Greek crisis by taking initiatives that went beyond the narrow framework of the Treaties and required the allocation of hefty funds.

One of the key figures of the 2009-2018 Greek debt crisis, Germany's former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, died on Tuesday. It is a development that appears almost symbolic in this country, as the deep wounds inflicted on its economy during that period, leading to a loss of a quarter of its output, have gradually started to heal.

It took 16 years before Greece could allow the establishment of private universities. We could have had them since 2007 when the then conservative premier Kostas Karamanlis proposed a change to Article 16 of the Constitution, but he was not able to secure the consent of PASOK leader George Papandreou.

Around this time in 2020, the parliamentary majority of conservative New Democracy had voted in favor of the execution of the 2019 budget, which had been drawn up by the previous leftist SYRIZA government. When it had been first brought to Parliament by the government of Alexis Tsipras, New Democracy had voted it down.

 SYRIZA- The rise and fall of the cult left-wing party in Europe - Reflections on the right wing

Greece retains the capacity to service its debt, noted the European Commission's third Post-Program Surveillance Report released on Thursday.

There was surrealism and a dose of hypocrisy in the debate that preceded the approval of an amendment for the legalization of a number of irregular immigrants who live and work in Greece and who will be granted a permit to work in sectors that are experiencing a lack of hands.

A bill allowing migrants to obtain a three-year residency and work permit as a means to tackle labor shortages was passed by Parliament in a roll call vote on Tuesday.

Migrants are essential to filling the labor and skills gap in the domestic labor market, the governor of the Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras has said.

Speaking at the 2nd MD Forum in Athens, Stournaras noted that Greece faces significant labor shortages in key sectors of the economy, such as tourism, agricultural production, industry and construction, and many jobs remain vacant.