Left-wing politics

The Constitutional Court has tasked a rapporteur for penning the report on the closure case of the Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) after the party refused to make a verbal defense before the court on April 11.

There was a plan by the SYRIZA-led government to acquire and control media, according to the multi-page reasoning of the Special Court, published on Monday, that led to the conviction of ex-minister Nikos Pappas to two years in prison over his handling of a 2016 TV license tender.

The campaign for the May 21 parliamentary election will begin right after the Orthodox Easter, which falls on April 16 this year, and political parties are busy honing their media strategy, searching for catchy slogans and polling incessantly to gauge the mood of likely voters.

The question of changing the leadership in the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) does not stand. Party leader Kornelia Ninova will not resign, despite the historically poor result of Sunday's vote.

This became clear at the BSP's first briefing after the elections, in which the party received 8.94%.

A law passed by the previous leftist-led government giving the vote to people whose 17th birthday falls within the calendar year of an election, a year earlier than previously, means that people as young as 16 years and 5 months will be eligible to cast ballots. It also means a larger than usual cohort of new voters.

The difference between ruling New Democracy and SYRIZA is down to 3.6 points, according to a poll conducted by Alco for Alpha TV between March 13 and 17 on a nationwide sample of 1,001 voters.

More specifically, New Democracy leads the pack regarding voter intentions with 28.4%, followed by leftist opposition SYRIZA with 24.8% and center-left PASOK in third with 9.3%.

The political landscape reflected in public opinion polls almost three weeks after the rail tragedy at Tempe is causing a commotion in the ranks of the country's political parties, as "nobody" has gained popularity among the burgeoning section of undecided voters: They shot up to 12.5% in the latest survey conducted by Pulse for Skai, from 9.5% just a month earlier.

The National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has "neutralized" a senior PKK member, the so-called finance manager of the terrorist organization in Aleppo and Tal Rifat, during an operation in northern Syria.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced that one of the most senior PKK terrorists, so-called top-ranking PKK member in the country and wanted in the red category, was killed alongside six other terrorists in the southeastern province of Şırnak in an anti-terror operation.

In the operation carried out by the provincial Gendarmerie Command, seven terrorists were "neutralized."

Every miracle lasts three days - and so does mourning. Then, all hell breaks loose and Greece goes back to doing what it does best, which is shifting responsibilities.