Socialism

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday gave the clearest indication yet regarding what kind of result in Sunday’s European Parliament vote would, in his view, give the opposition party the impetus to call for snap elections.

Fotis Kouvelis, leader of Democratic Left (DIMAR), a former government partner, said on Wednesday he would turn down any invitation to return to a new coalition administration.

Incumbent Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis (photo) will be facing off with his challenger for the capital's municipal authority ahead of Sunday's runoff for the first time in a televised debate on Wednesday.

A plane carrying several senior Laotian government officials crashed Saturday morning, killing at least 3 people, a Laotian diplomat, quoted by The New York Times said.

Killed in the crash were the deputy prime minister, Douangchay Phichit, and the governor of Vientiane province.

Babis Angourakis, 63, a Greek Communist Party (KKE) candidate for the May 25 European Parliament elections, died on Monday night at an Athens hospital, where he had been rushed after suffering an aneurism.

Angourakis was born in Bucharest in 1951 and studied information technology in Dresden.

Sofia City Court has put off for the second time the start of a trial against ruling socialists' leader and former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.

The reason was that Stanishev had not received a transcript of the indictment, a blunder that also caused the previous misfiring in Apri, Dariknews.bg has reported.

The Sofia City Court is to hold its first sitting on the trial against Sergey Stanishev, the leader of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

Stanishev, who was formerly Prime Minister (2005-2009) and is a MEP candidate, is accused of having lost seven secret documents.

A new opinion poll on voting intentions for European Parliament elections shows leftist opposition SYRIZA ahead of conservative coalition leaders New Democracy by 2 percent.

Conducted by Pulse for the weekly To Pontiki newspaper, the survey will be published on Friday.

Petar Kurumbashev, MP from the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), has resigned and will leave Parliament.

Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov announced Kurumbashev's decision on Wednesday, without specifying the motives.

Kurumbashev is one of the seven deputy chairs of BSP, according to reports of mediapool.bg.

Former Prime Minister George Papandreou declared himself perplexed about the fuss created by his decision to appear on the same panel as Democratic Left (DIMAR) leader Fotis Kouvelis at a book launch on Monday.