Greek government formation, January

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday announced tax cuts and pledged to reinstate a benefit for low income pensioners among other "relief measures," weeks before municipal and European Parliament elections.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will unveil tax and pension "relief measures" on Tuesday, weeks before a European Parliament election, a government official told Reuters.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will hold a press conference at the Greek capital's Zappeio Hall on Tuesday at 7 p.m., it has been announced.

Tsipras, who will be accompanied by his government's economic policy officials, is expected to announce a package of new financial measures ahead of general elections later this year.

Alexis Tsipras has appointed the President of the Democratic Left (DIMAR) party, Thanasis Theoharopoulos, as the new minister for tourism following the resignation on Friday of Elena Kountoura, who will be running for a seat in European Parliament later this month on the SYRIZA ticket.

The approval by the Euro Working Group Thursday of Greece's request for the early repayment of part of its debts to the International Monetary Fund buoyed the government, which is seeking to bolster its flagging popularity in the countdown to local and European elections later this month.

Just as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was preparing to announce a new round of pre-election handouts, conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis deprived the premier of one of the arrows in his quiver by saying he would submit an amendment to revoke a planned reduction in the tax-free threshold.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is planning a new package of handouts ready ahead of European Parliament and regional elections in May while his leftist SYRIZA and other parties are vying for the support of some 428,000 new voters who will be going to ballot boxes for the first time. 

Greece has the right to call off the name agreement signed with North Macedonia as the Balkan country has repeatedly violated the terms of the deal, former defense minister Panos Kammenos has said, while defending the record of his Independent Greeks (ANEL) party.
The populist right-wing party quit the leftist-led coalition in January in protest at the so-called Prespes accord.

Repaying earlier expensive International Monetary Fund loans is a significant step for Greece which will create favorable conditions for its economy, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday, promising more relief measures.

"We are gaining points of [economic] freedom," Tsipras said during an interview with Greece's Antenna television.

Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has claimed that, in the summer of 2015 when Greece faced a liquidity crisis, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had suggested the Greek state could plunder billions of euros of citizens' cash from safe deposit boxes.