Greek government-debt crisis

In the last few days, the Greek government and main opposition SYRIZA have submitted their proposals for blocking Ellines - the party formed by Ilias Kasidiaris, a former top official of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn convicted of directing a criminal organization - from running in the upcoming general elections.

Greece has hired Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank to act as advisers on its planned listing of a 30% stake in Athens airport, two officials close to the matter said on Monday.

Athens said last year it was considering listing a 30% stake in its biggest airport after an ownership review. Germany-based manager AviAlliance holds a 40% stake in the airport.

Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras is engaging in "extortion" and "degrading the institutional pillars of Greek democracy," government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou has said, following SYRIZA's announcement that it will abstain from all parliamentary procedures until the prime minister announces a general election date.

Greece's main opposition party on Tuesday demanded the dissolution of Parliament and immediate elections, accusing the conservative New Democracy government of being "morally and politically compromised."

Addressing an event held in his home town Lamia in his honor, after he was named Finance Minister of the Year 2023 for Europe by the FT group's Banker magazine, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras stressed that the distinction awarded to him was "not just personal but primarily collective."

With elections looming, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras are seeking to rally their traditional voters and hunt for the undecided ones who will largely shape the final correlations in the first ballot of simple proportional representation.

Behind the horrors of war, amidst successive international crises, a favorable reality for Europe (and Greece) is quietly unfolding. What was once a factor of division and weakness for the European Union is now a pillar of unity and strength. The euro, at the heart of the EU's first major crisis of the 21st century, has evolved from a weak core to a European unifier.

Greece will sell 625 million euros of three-month Treasury bills on February 1, the country's Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) said on Friday.

The agency last sold three-month T-bills earlier this month with the paper priced to yield 2.18%.

So much controversy has been stirred by a recent event titled "Are We Staying in Europe? Wiretaps, Rights and Rule of Law," that the discussion about it actually began before it even took place.

"Greece has made it. Greece has turned a page," Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Friday at an Economist event in Athens.

Staikouras said growth results looked to be higher than expected, with the European Commission envisaging an economic growth double the rate of the European average in 2022 and even higher in 2023.