New Democracy

A committee of New Democracy MPs asked by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to propose changes to the Greek Constitution suggested Tuesday that the number of lawmakers in Parliament should be reduced from 300 to 200 and that the president of the republic should be given greater powers.

Former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos, ousted from government earlier this year when it was revealed he had held a secret meeting with Golden Dawn, is to form his own party.

Baltakos, who had been one of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s closest aides, said that the new party would be called Rizes (Roots).

Stavros Theodorakis, leader of the centrist To Potami party, will meet with conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

It will be the first official meeting between the two leaders. Scheduled talks between the two were cancelled in October after Samaras called for a confidence vote.

Greece’s new defense and development ministers are due to be sworn in on Monday after a mini reshuffle caused by the departure of Dimitris Avramopoulos from his post at the Defense Ministry to become the EU's Home Affairs and Migration commissioner.

Nikos Dendias, 55, leaves the Development Ministry to replace Avramopoulos.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday appointed Nikos Dendias as defense minister, replacing outgoing Dimitris Avramopoulos, who assumes the European Commission’s immigration portfolio next week, with Costas Skrekas to take over Dendias’s spot at the helm of the Development Ministry.

An announcement regarding the new defense minister replacing recently appointed European commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos (photo) could be made on Friday, Kathimerini understands.

The two parties comprising the coalition government, conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, are once again faced with a number of crucial decisions.

Changes in the pay structure of public servants as well as the laws governing the operations of trade unions are reforms that PASOK obviously can and should support.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and the coalition government's deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos will meet at the Maximos Mansion on Thursday ahead of a visit by troika's technical teams early next month.

New Democracy MP Dora Bakoyannis on Wednesday criticized the conservative-led government for failing to take action to compensate about 15,000 small bondholders hurt by Greece's debt restructuring program, or PSI, in 2012.

A dispute between New Democracy and PASOK over civil servants’ salaries continued Tuesday, underlining the big task facing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos as they prepare to meet Wednesday to discuss the government’s strategy ahead of the troika’s return to Athens.