Hundreds of doctor and nurses gathered outside the Parliament on Thursday to protest the bill that privatizes a large part of services of secondary health care in the public hospitals in the country. The Federations of workers in public hospitals POEDIN demanded the immediate withdrawal of the “monster” bill, as …
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Ruling ND MPs abstain from voting to establish wiretapping inquiry committee
Members of the Greek Parliament voted on Monday evening to set up a committee of inquiry into the wiretapping of the mobile phone of PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis. The motion received the backing of 142 opposition MPs of the total 299 lawmakers present at the voting procedure. All 157 MPs …
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Wiretapping scandal: Greece’s Intelligence Service Chief, PM’s secretary step down
The head of Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) and the secretary general of the Prime Minister’s office stepped down on Friday following persistent media reports of the wiretapping of the phone of a journalist as well as the leader of opposition party PASOK-KINAL. The first resignation was submitted by the …
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Greek PM to announce plan for electricity rates as first mass lawsuit filed
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will announce the national support plan aiming to relief households and businesses from exorbitant electricity rates. The televised message will be broadcast at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The new measures are scheduled to be presented in detail on Friday, May 6, by the finance and the …
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Greece’s opposition SYRIZA, KKE, MeRA25 condemn Russia’s military operation
Greece’s opposition parties condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine on Thursday morning. Main opposition left-wing party SYRIZA said in a statement: “SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance unequivocally condemns Russia’s military operations in Ukraine since early Thursday, which violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. The EU must use all diplomatic means …
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Pressure on New Democracy to expel MP for “targeting migrants’ children” (UPD)
A public outcry broke out on Tuesday when New Democracy MP and former journalist Konstantinos Bogdanos retweeted a post of a website that was targeting children of migrants in a kindergarten in Athens. The website owned by the MP’s wife had published a list of the children’s names as well …
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Opposition parties slam Greek Gov’t for “imposing restrictions without plan”
One after the other, Greece’s opposition parties slammed the government on Saturday after it announced stricter lockdown measures again, following a relative relaxation it had permitted over Christmas and New Year. “Restrictive measures imposed without a plan and without financially supporting the society are doomed to fail,” said main opposition …
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Greece calls on Germany, Spain, Italy for arms embargo on Turkey
Greece has called on Germany, Italy and Spain to impose an arms embargo on Turkey, citing Ankara’s recent provocative actions. Citing diplomatic sources, state-run news agency amna reports that Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has sent letters to his counterparts in Germany, Heiko Maas, in Spain, Arancha Gonzalez-Laya, and in Italy, …
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Opposition parties: Greek gov’t has huge responsibility for the Moria fire
Greek opposition parties sharply criticized the New Democracy government saying that it has huge responsibilities for the situation in the hotspot of Moria and the fire that destroyed it. “Today’s tragedy in Moria demonstrates the criminal responsibilities of (Prime Minister Kyriakos) Mitsotakis and (Migration Policy and Asylum Minister Notis) Mitarakis,” …
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Greece’s new environment bill allows oil & gas mining in NATURA protected areas
Several environmental organizations and opposition parties have called on the Greek government to withdraw a disastrous environmental bill that, among other things, will permit oil and gas drilling in NATURA protected areas. Protesters gathered outside the Parliament on Monday calling on the government to “Change the system not the climate” …
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Samos, Chios and Leros up in arms over pre-departure centers capacity
Local authorities on the islands of Samos, Chios and Leros are up in arms less than 24 hours after the government announced the opening of five pre-departure centers on the five Aegean islands with capacities mostly exceeding the number of refugees and migrants currently been hosted there. Local authorities speak …
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“Ancient Greek warriors” and “Pork BBQ” provocateurs against asylum-seekers
Naousa in North Greece 2019: A man in an ancient Greek warrior costume is waiting together with other compatriots on a semi-dark street in the middle of the night. His compatriots are normally dressed given the weather circumstances. What are they waiting for? A rumor spread via Facebook claimed that …
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Tsipras’ words mean little to fire-stricken Greeks standing on ashes, says …
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced mounting criticism on Saturday after wildfires that killed at least 88 people plunged Greece into grief just as it was healing from years of painful bailouts. Survivors and political opponents accused Tsipras and his government of insensitivity for not apologizing for Greece’s deadliest blaze …
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Referendum shows a deeply divided Turkey: What’s next?
A slim victory that is a defeat in a divided country. Turkey’s referendum result is tight, with a gap of some 1.3 million votes between winner Yes and loser No. Opposition parties cry ‘foul’ because the Supreme Electoral Council allowed non-stamped ballots to be counted as valid. One and a …
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IMF to ask Greece’s opposition for ‘assurances’ in implementation of extra austerity
The International Monetary Fund will seek assurances by Greece’s main opposition party New Democracy in case the fund decides to participate in the Greek program. In the regular briefing on Thursday, the spokesman of IMF, Gerry Rice, did not rule out assurances by the Greek opposition. Assurances mean that Greece’s …
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Athens: Rally urging government to Resign started outside the Parliament
The rally organized on social media and asking the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition to resign started at 18:30 outside the Greek Parliament and Syntagma Square. One hour later and it seems that there are no more than 7,000-8,000 protesters waving flags and banners with anti-government and anti-Tsipras slogans. The anti-government protest was …
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Pope Francis prays for Greece, theology students pray for cancellation of “heretic” Pope’s visit
One day before flying to the Greek island of Lesvos to visit the refugees and migrants in the detention center, Pope Francis prayed for for his visit to Greece tomorrow Saturday. Pope Francis in Santa Maria Maggiore Church in Rome. The press office of Vatikan said that the Pope offered …
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Race to keep Gov’t majority: Tsipras excludes “pensions & farmers reforms” from Wednesday’s voting
With a simple non-paper, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Monday, that the “reforms on pensions and farmers’ taxation” will not be on the voting agenda of the Parliament upcoming Wednesday. The move is understood as Tsipras’ big retreat towards SYRIZA lawmakers threatening to not vote for these measures and …
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Referendum final: NO 61.3%, YES 38.6%; SAMARAS resigns
Ballot boxes closed at 7 o’ clock in the afternoon. Immediately, several private television channels started to public results of public opinion surveys conducted among Greeks before and after they voted. However these results were not exit polls. Orange: NO Green YES Live Blog starts here 07:30 pm – First …
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Greece drops “debt write-off”; “Somersault!” cheer some gloating Greeks
Greece said to delete the debt write-off proposal from its negotiation list and proposed a debt swap instead. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told about 100 financiers in London on Monday, that Greece would seek to swap some Greek debt owned by the European Central Bank and the European Financial Stability …
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