Politics of Greece

Public hospitals, health centers and ambulance services will be operating with emergency skeleton staff on Wednesday as workers join a nationwide 24-hour strike organized by civil servants' union ADEDY.

Former SYRIZA MP Petros Tatsopoulos and Democratic Left (DIMAR) lawmaker Grigoris Psarianos are expected to join the recently formed centrist party To Potami after being named among the 60 non-party members that will take part in a “committee for dialogue” set up by the new movement.

By Elias Maglinis

By Jonathan Stearns

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said his country will avoid Argentina’s fate of staying mired in economic troubles more than a decade after defaulting on debt.

An attack against University of Macedonia professor Nikos Marantzidis in a Thessaloniki café late on Tuesday was carried out in the presence of Michalis Peglis, an advisor to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Taking stock of Greece’s six-month European Union presidency on the day before Italy takes over, Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Monday called it “successful,” noting it had paved the way for the country to finally emerge from a protracted financial crisis.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos on Monday met to discuss a series of prior actions that Greece must honor in order to clinch two tranches of rescue loans worth 2 billion euros with talks believed to have focused on controversial plans for the part-privatization of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), which is to be debated in Parliament this week.

Coalition leaders Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos are due to met on Monday at 6 p.m. for talks.
Among the main topics of discussion will be the legislation the government is preparing to spin off part of the Public Power Corporation (PPC), which w... ...

 PM, Venizelos to discuss prior actions

The government faces a difficult week as a controversial bill foreseeing the part-privatization of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) is set to go to Parliament on Wednesday amid vehement opposition by leftist SYRIZA and unionists to the measure, one of a series of so-called prior actions that Athens has pledged to the troika.

The testimony of Spyros Travlos, a former senior Defense Ministry official, in connection to a scandal which erupted over German submarine purchases, has been postponed for July 11 after he asked for more time to prepare his defense.