Category Archives: Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Greek PM survives confidence vote but phone-tapping scandal rumbles on

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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.

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Opposition file motion of no confidence over Greek ‘Watergate’ scandal

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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.”

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Greek ‘Watergate’ phone-tapping scandal puts added pressure on PM

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Embattled leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is facing calls to resign after state intelligence monitored opposition party

For much of last week thunderstorms and torrential rain swept Athens, marking a dramatic end to a summer otherwise electrified by talk of spyware, cyber-mercenaries, espionage and eavesdropping.

As the sun re-emerged on Friday, it was to a highly charged mood as Greece’s prematurely reconvened parliament debated a phone-tapping scandal whose exposure of practices last associated with military rule has shocked the nation and been met with stunned disbelief at the heart of the EU.

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Greece rolls out red carpet for crown prince, as Khashoggi killing falls off agenda

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With Europe grappling with an energy crisis, Mohammed bin Salman finds he is once again welcome

Smiles, handshakes, backslaps and the Acropolis all to himself. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has landed in Europe – his first trip west since the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and on a continent jittering with energy worries, the Saudi royal has received red-carpet treatment.

Human rights concerns aside, the de facto leader of the world’s greatest oil producer has luxuriated in a welcome that only recently may have seemed impossible.

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Boris Johnson’s zeal to return Parthenon marbles revealed in 1986 article

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Unearthed Oxford Union article by prime minister made passionate case for sculptures’ repatriation to Athens

The extent of Boris Johnson’s U-turn on the Parthenon marbles has been laid bare in a 1986 article unearthed in an Oxford library in which the then classics student argued passionately for their return to Athens.

Deploying language that would make campaigners proud, Johnson not only believed the fifth century BC antiquities should be displayed “where they belong”, but deplored how they had been “sawed and hacked” from the magisterial edifice they once adorned.

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Greek prime minister to appeal to British public for return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis undeterred in Athens’ quest for classical sculptures after Johnson refuses to negotiate

Athens has vowed to use “every means” in its quest to persuade London to relinquish the Parthenon sculptures, with a campaign that will focus on winning over the hearts and minds of Britons.

Far from being discouraged by Boris Johnson’s refusal on Tuesday to engage in intergovernmental talks over the demand for the return of the 5th century BC artwork, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, appeared to be buoyed by his visit to the UK.

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Greek prime minister tries to broker deal for return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers to loan Greek treasures to British Museum if ‘stolen’ sculptures are returned to Acropolis

The Greek prime minister has demanded that the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles be returned to Athens and has repeated an offer to loan some of his country’s treasures to the British Museum in an attempt to broker a deal.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Daily Telegraph that the sculptures, also known as the Elgin marbles, belong in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the Periclean masterpiece.

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Sun, sea, safety: Greece woos Europe’s pensioners with 7% income tax rate

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Athens offers generous tax incentives to lure retirees – and boost its own struggling economy

Most countries want to attract the young and the willing – entrepreneurs with ideas, students looking to learn, people prepared to do the jobs locals turn down. Greece, though, has decided on a different approach, by making a play for Europe’s retirees.

“The logic is very simple: we want pensioners to relocate here,” says Athina Kalyva, head of tax policy at the Greek finance ministry, who has helped design a scheme to get people to do just that. “We have a beautiful country, a very good climate, so why not?”

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Greeks marvel at Britain’s Covid chaos as their lockdown lifts after 150 deaths

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Still resilient after taking tough and early action, Greece can now look forward to a summer tourist season beginning in July

When Pavlos Pandelides realised the coronavirus pandemic was moving west, he bought a plane ticket and flew from Athens to London. He then drove north to Nottingham to collect his daughter, a student at the city’s university, before returning with her the next day to Greece. An ardent admirer of all things British, the businessman had absolutely no doubt that what he was doing was right. “The British are fighters but I could see they were underestimating this,” he said.

While Covid-19 was tearing through northern Italy, Boris Johnson was still faltering, with his government showing worrying signs of complacency. There was, said Pandelides, no time to waste. “It was more than a protective father thing. It was clear they were about to really mess up.”

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Greece hopes EU-Turkey talks will ease tension over refugee crisis

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Greek PM tells the Guardian planned talks including Merkel, Macron and Erdoğan are an opportunity to ‘set the record straight’

Greece is hoping critical talks between the EU and Ankara will help ease the border crisis that has weighed heavily on the country since Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, declared he had “opened the gates” to Europe for migrants and refugees.

In an exclusive interview, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said planned talks between the German and French leaders on one hand, and Erdoğan on the other, on Tuesday would be an opportunity to finally “set the record straight”.

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Child dies off Lesbos in first fatality since Turkey opened border

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Four-year-old dies as crisis sparked by Turkey’s decision to open its borders continues

The first victim of the worsening crisis that has engulfed Greece following Turkey’s abrupt decision to open its borders to thousands of refugees desperate to reach Europe has been confirmed with the death of a child in waters off Lesbos.

Authorities said a four-year-old Syria boy died early on Monday when an inflatable dinghy carrying people from the Turkish coast capsized off the island. “Doctors rushed to save the child but it was too late,” a police source on Lesbos said.

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Greece feeds economic recovery with tax law to lure investors

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Mitsotakis government seeks foreign capital from new residents in prosperity drive

Not so long ago the idea of Greece announcing tax relief measures to entice the global rich would have been regarded as a joke. With the EU’s weakest economy, and a leftist government in power, the world’s wealthy were keen to keep their distance.

But in a marked departure of policy, the centre-right administration led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis has offered an array of incentives to attract the rich.

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Mitsotakis takes over as Greece’s PM with radical change of style

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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.

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