Politics of Greece

Outspoken SYRIZA lawmaker Yiannis Micheloyiannakis (photo, center) announced on Saturday that he was going on hunger strike, citing a series of reasons ranging from solidarity for dozens of Syrian refugees who have been protesting outside Parliament, as well as austerity policies and the government’s refusal to grant study furloughs to jailed bank robber and anarchist Nikos Romanos.

Greece perceives both the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Sothern Energy Corridor, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said during the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Venizelos declared while at a Greek-Turkish business forum in Athens that the Southern Energy Corridor was "opening a new page in the relations between the two countries".

Although Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos suggested on Friday that an agreement between Greece and the troika is possible before December 15, the government is keeping its options open regarding its next steps.

Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos will travel to Berlin on Wednesday for two days of talks, it was announced on Friday.

According to sources, the PASOK leader will meet German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel.

Greek universities are in a position to cooperate with Chinese universities on joint undergraduate and postgraduate programs, Education Minister Andreas Loverdos has said on a visit to China.

The Finance Ministry cleaners who have been protesting their placement in a labor reserve for the last few months have been officially fired, it emerged on Friday.

Some 600 cleaners have been engaged in a legal battle to regain their jobs but the government announced this week that their spell in the labor pool on reduced salaries had ended and that they would not be rehired.

Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos stressed on Friday that the government would not impose new austerity measures such as cuts to pensions and salaries and that a deal with the troika would be reached by the middle of this month.

Speculation about the government's prospects for achieving the 180-seat super-majority needed to elect a president peaked on Friday after several independent and opposition MPs indicated that they would be willing to back the coalition's candidate, thus contributing toward averting snap polls.

Dozens of ambulance workers in the northern port city of Thessaloniki gathered outside the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace on Thursday morning, demanding a meeting with the minister to express their concerns regarding the poor state of their fleet.

Although employment barriers have dropped significantly around the world, many young Greeks would still rather look for work in Greece, according to a survey carried out across 189 countries by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Network, which comprises 50 leading job websites including Greece’s skywalker.gr.