Leftwing opposition leader who was PM during eurozone crisis says party needs ‘profound renewal’
Alexis Tsipras, the former student activist who rose to become Greece’s first radical leftwing prime minister, has resigned as leader of Syriza four days after the party’s crushing defeat in general elections.
Eight years after taking Europe by storm, Tsipras said he was stepping down to make way for a new leader who could oversee Syriza’s “profound renewal”.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis of centre-right New Democracy party says he now has ‘strong mandate’ to modernise nation
Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed to immediately press ahead with his ambitious reform programme after winning a decisive victory in the general elections on Sunday.
The New Democracy leader said his commanding 24-point lead over the leftist main opposition Syriza party had given him a “strong mandate” to modernise a country long seen as resistant to reform.
Continue reading...Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s party on 40% share against Syriza on 20%, with more than 90% of votes counted
Greece’s general election has failed to produce a winner despite the centre-right party of the incumbent prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, clinching 40% of the vote with more than 90% of ballots counted.
New Democracy was leading with a 20-point margin – 40.8% – over the leftist main opposition Syriza party which was trailing at just over 20.1% – a difference rarely seen since the collapse in 1974 of military rule. Even in Crete, a socialist bastion, the rightwing party had fared unexpectedly well.
Continue reading...Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras describes Kyriakos Mitsotakis as mastermind of ‘a criminal network’
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has survived a no-confidence vote over a phone-tapping scandal that has shocked the nation and sparked mounting concern in the EU.
After three days of rancorous debate, the censure motion was defeated on Friday by 156 votes to 143 in the 300-seat chamber of deputies. With passions animated by disclosures of wiretaps being placed on politicians, army top brass and journalists, the debate had run into the wee hours before the vote.
Continue reading...Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused of orchestrating mass wiretaps of political allies and foes
The leader of Greece’s main opposition party has tabled a motion of no confidence against the government, accusing the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, of orchestrating mass wiretaps of political allies and foes.
“For the past six months, Greek society has been witness to disclosures of an inconceivable number of phone taps, the deepest deviation from rule of law that the country has seen in its modern history,” said Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the leftist Syriza party, as he submitted the motion. “We have a historic duty to act.”
Continue reading...‘It has to be recognised as a term and as a crime’, says government opposition, after unprecedented number of women murdered by partners
The Greek government has come under growing pressure to introduce femicide as an offence in the country’s penal code amid outrage over the growing and unprecedented number of women being brutally murdered by their partners.
Two women were murdered by their husbands within five days last week, bringing the death toll to 17 since January, according to state-run television. Both men allegedly told police that they had killed their wives out of fear that they would leave them.
Continue reading...After steering New Democracy to landslide win, former banker says ‘hard work begins today’
Greece’s outgoing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has handed over power to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a former banker who navigated the centre-right New Democracy party to landslide victory in Sunday’s snap general elections.
In a changing of the guard that was as subdued as it was swift, Mitsotakis assumed office after he was officially sworn in by the Orthodox Christian country’s spiritual leader, Archbishop Ieronymos.
Continue reading...Outgoing PM has been on quite a journey but he doesn’t seem to have taken the Greek people with him
For Brussels and Berlin, it may as well have been Moros, the Greek god of impending doom, a driver of mortals to their deadly fate, who had been elected as the prime minister of Greece in January 2015.
Alexis Tsipras was the radical leftwing firebrand with the open-necked shirt, whose Syriza government posed a threat to the European order through its demands to rewrite the rules underpinning the single currency, and willingness to take Greece and the EU to the brink to achieve that goal.
Continue reading...Incumbent prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of Syriza, calls rival Kyriakos Mitsotakis to concede defeat
Voters in Greece have given Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right New Democracy party a resounding mandate to form a new government after it won by a landslide over the incumbent leftwing Syriza party, which has been in power since 2015.
As the outcome of Sunday’s general election became clear, the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, conceded defeat, calling Mitsotakis to congratulate him on his victory. The official handover of power will take place on Monday.
Continue reading...In Syntagma Square, all the way from the grubby marble stairs opposite the Greek parliament down to the bottom of the plaza, people have gathered. Some are holding flags – the red, white and purple flags of Syriza, the once-radical leftist party whose leader they have come to hear.
Hip-hop thunders from giant speakers. The air is heavy and hot. An expectant crowd has been kept waiting for over an hour in temperatures turbocharged by massive spotlights. By the time Alexis Tsipras appears, many are sweating profusely. Still they roar their approval. The countdown has begun.
Continue reading...Centrist Kostas Bakoyannis says his approach transcends divisions that have long defined Greece
The mayor-elect of Athens says he doesn’t believe in grand projects, nor does he “do utopias”. What he prefers to focus on is “real life” – and seeing it by walking and talking with almost everyone he meets.
It has paid off. After visiting 129 neighbourhoods across Athens since launching his campaign to become the capital’s youngest mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, at 41, has been catapulted to the top office of City Hall with the widest margin of victory ever. With him comes a team of councillors that will be among the most politically diverse on record.
Continue reading...Alexis Tsipras arrives in Skopje on first official visit after settling decades-long dispute
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has begun a historic visit to his newly named neighbour of North Macedonia two months after brokering a landmark deal to end a row that spawned almost three decades of hostility between the two countries.
In the first official trip by a Greek premier since the former Yugoslav republic proclaimed independence in 1991, Tsipras touched down in the capital, Skopje, pledging to consolidate the mutual trust that for so long has eluded the two Balkan nations. He then posed for a selfie with his North Macedonian counterpart, Zoran Zaev.
Continue reading...Majority back move amid angry cries of ‘traitors’ from nationalists who oppose deal
MPs in Greece have ratified a historic accord that allows the country’s northern neighbour Macedonia to change its name.
In a roll-call vote, punctuated by angry cries of “traitors” from nationalists opposed to the deal, 153 MPs voted in favour of the pact.
Continue reading...Alexis Tsipras secures majority as opposition claims deal with Skopje is ‘nationally damaging’
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has won a confidence vote in parliament, clearing a major hurdle for Greece’s approval of an accord to end a dispute over Macedonia’s name and averting the prospect of a snap election.
Tsipras called the confidence motion after his rightwing coalition partner Panos Kammenos quit the government on Sunday in protest at the name deal signed between Athens and Skopje last year.
Continue reading...Russian president claims alleged increase of western influence is ‘destablising’
Vladimir Putin has weighed into the row over Macedonia’s name-change, accusing the US and its allies of destabilising the Balkans by “asserting their dominant role” in the region.
The Russian president criticised what he described as deliberate efforts to increase western influence in a part of the world Moscow has long regarded as falling within its own orbit.
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