new democracy

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Mega TV exit poll: New Democracy first-past-the-poll with 40% to 36% of the vote

The first exit poll results presented by the country’s most popular broadcaster

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Tsipras says he wants to avoid second election with coalition based on ‘progressive’ programme

Over the last many months, the political debate has focused on possible alliances for a viable coalition government to be formed after the next election, with parties facing gruelling decisions.

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Editorial: The need for clear answers and political realism

The strong reservations of the electorate appear to be pervasive in the political system right now, and that can be transcended only with clear answers and political realism.

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ND deputy parliament speaker says Muslim MPs could be surveilled for national security reasons

Athanasiou, in a supposedly hypothetical example, said Muslim MPs in Greece’s Parliament could have their phones tapped on suspicion of espionage on Turkey’s behalf.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Restoring trust in political parties

The youth, working people, businesses small and large, and pensioners constitute critical pools of voters. They are not electoral audiences that seek simplistic answers to complex issues.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Political toxicity

Parties, when they maintain that their morals and demeanour are better than those the others, must demonstrate that this is not merely hollow rhetoric.

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Editorial Ta Nea: The power of the political centre

The contemporary dilemmas in the West are not so much right vs. left, but rather progress vs. conservatism, stability vs. adventurism, and liberalism vs. populism.

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Editorial: No excuse

The Council of State said that establishing a University Police force 'does not violate the principles of academic freedom and the administrative autonomy of universities'.

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GPO Poll: Amid war and galloping inflation New Democracy leads SYRIZA by eight percentage points

SYRIZA, however, has made only a 0.6 percentage point gain, and ND has lost one percentage point since a March Economic Barometer survey conducted by the same company..

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Editorial Ta Nea: University police force plan on the back burner

Ta Nea has repeatedly underlined the need for decisive action to root out violence at Greek universities, which was a key plank in ruling New Democracy’s 2019 electoral platform.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Populism

The current major geopolitical and economic challenges have unfortunately once again brought populism to the fore in many Western societies.

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Editorial To Vima: The dilemma of ruling coalitions

When PM as leader of the top party [SYRIZA has long trailed behind ND in all polls] raises the prospect of a coalition government, other party leaders cannot dodge the issue and turn a blind eye to new realities.

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Inflation, war, energy and food prices bedevil New Democracy, narrow lead over SYRIZA

While opposition parties are calling for a hike in social spending, the government is signalling that support offered to households and businesses to weather the pandemic has nearly exhausted its fiscal space.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Opportunity in centrist politics

As long as SYRIZA continues to appeal mainly to the emotions of the public, both PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and centre-left KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis have an opportunity to gain ground among centrist voters.

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New Democracy maintains 11.6 percentage point lead over SYRIZA, KINAL on the rise

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras garners the lion’s share among those who declare themselves centre-left voters, with 43.5 percent, followed by Androulakis with 23.3 percent.

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Op-Ed: Amnesia

Although no serious person denies that Greece had allowed dysfunctions to fester for years, a mere glance at the course of public debt and of deficits demonstrates that they skyrocketed in the 2004-2009 period [on Karamanlis’ watch].

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Editorial Ta Nea: The only option

Citizens are not clients. They expect and demand policies and works that can effectively lead the country to a better future. Voters judge every government based on its effectiveness.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Results

KINAL/PASOK must prove that it can stand firmly in the centre of the political spectrum, with a distinct Social Democratic platform, and without being crushed under the weight of pressures from New Democracy and SYRIZA.

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GPO poll: New Democracy retains 9.2 percentage point lead over SYRIZA

Though the government has reached its lowest point yet in polls - not long after the botched handling of the recent snowstorm in Athens. New Democracy’s decline has not benefited SYRIZA, but KINAL/PASOK’s numbers have been rising.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Comparison

Alexis Tsipras avoided referring to the real reason for a move that is viewed as sensationalist even by his loyal comrades, as the government is not in danger of renegade New Democracy MPs voting it down.

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Editorial To Vima: Everything is in flux

The PM did not have the necessary time to implement and advance his plans. Less than six months into his term, he was confronted with an unprecedented pandemic which took by surprise and rocked governments all over the world.

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Editorial: A three-pole party system

The election of Nikos Androulakis as the centre-left Movement for Change (KINAL) leader, and the rise of the party in the polls, indicates that the bipolar party system may be coming to an end.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Maturation

The dysfunction and acrobatics of SYRIZA is due to the party’s being out of touch with the contemporary needs of Greek society. It often seems entrenched in skirmishes between closed groups and factions that are reminiscent of a bygone era.

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GPO poll: New Democracy ahead of SYRIZA by over ten percentage points

The poll suggests that KINAL (Movement for Change) maintains the momentum that it achieved from the election of its new leader by over 200,000 members and friends of the party.

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MRB poll: ND maintains double-digit lead over SYRIZA, KINAL’s support rising

New Democracy garners 30.7 percent, SYRIZA 19.7 percent, and KINAL 13.5 percent. Additionally, the KKE Greek Communist Party garnered 4.1 percent, Elliniki Lysi 3.8 percent, MeRa25 2.7 and percent.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Opportunity for the Greek centre-left

Now, KINAL is nearly or even over ten percent in all opinion polls, even as the two largest parties – New Democracy and SYRIZA - have declined somewhat in surveys.

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Mitsotakis and the battle for centrist voters

While ruling New Democracy has always been a centre-right party, Mitsotakis has chosen to interpret that term as 'less ideological' and 'more practical'.

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Pulse poll: ND retains over 10 percentage point lead over SYRIZA, broad support for Greek defence accords

A large majority of respondents expressed approval for Greece’s recent defence agreements with France and the US, especially for the accord with France that included a mutual defence pact.

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Μovement for Change approves six candidacies in party leadership race, candidates feverishly regroup

MP Andreas Loverdos, who has said that if elected he will rename the party Pasok, had the most combative and audacious reaction to Papandreou’s candidacy, and effectively depicted himself as the only candidate that, following in Andreas Papandreou’s footsteps, can make the party great again.

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New Democracy, SYRIZA clash over Pyatt’s remarks on bilateral defence accord

In a lengthy statement, SYRIZA accused ND of skewing Pyatt’s statements with fake news to hide the fact that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is the first PM after the 1974 post-junta regime change that has signed an indefinite extension of the US  use of Greek military facilities.

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OP-ed: Everyone to blame except SYRIZA

The main opposition has not considered that SYRIZA is not appealing because on all issues on the political agenda – from the Prespes Agreement to [convicted N17 terrorist Dimitris] Koufodinas, and from COVID-19 to the purchase of frigates – it has never once aligned itself with the social majority.

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Mitsotakis expels ultra-right MP Konstantinos Bogdanos from ND’s parliamentary group

Bogdanos even marshaled ultra-nationalist Georgios “Digenis Grivas, who was the founder of the Nazi-linked ultra-nationalist X Organisation in 1941, and much later of EOKA B, which played a key role in event’s leading to the coup attempt of President Makarios in July, 1974.

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Uproar over ND MP’s retweet of ‘shocking list’ of migrant children at Athens kindergarten

In a fresh tweet after he was blasted by top ND cadres, Bogdanos posted a tweet in which he attempted to dissociate himself from the website, but at the same time announced that it had promptly fired the person responsible for the post.

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The politically wounded Mr. Mitsotakis

The question now is to what extent the government can be reborn and renew itself so as to transcend the crisis of confidence caused by the catastrophic fires and the insecurity they stirred in the public.

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Economy, unemployment top concerns for Greeks according to new poll

Aside from labour and opposition parties, the government's labour bill has raised intense concerns in the ruling party which hopess to pass the bill in Parliament without irreparable political and electoral cost.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Battle for the political centre

Because the centre of the political spectrum remains the most hegemonic and seminal in terms of political representation, it holds the key to the political stage.

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Editorial To Vima: The old wolf doesn’t change

The truth is that Antonis Samaras is not operating in a vacuum. For decades he has had an intransigent stance on national issues and has played the nationalist card,

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Editorial To Vima: When silence is not golden

Charges lodged by former Syriza justice minister Stavros Kontonis that the new criminal code benefited Golden Dawn have rocked the party but thery are far more than an internal party issue.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Warning signs

A government that rests on its laurels and political advantage is in danger of becoming its own victim as In politics inertia, missteps, and omissions that fester will not be pardoned

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Editorial: The opponent

New Democracy's only opponent is itself and that is no small thing. The only trap that endangers it is that of developing the arrogance of power.

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Editorial To Vima: Alexis the small

Alexis Tsipras is attempting to organise an autarchic party with a hegemonic leader along the lines of Pasok’s model of governance in the 1980’s under Andreas Papandreou.

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Editorial To Vima: ‘Power reveals the mettle of a man’

In managing the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic he positively impressed everyone with his clear judgment, the directness of his choices, and his swift reaction.

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Editorial To Vima: The insurance ‘reform’

Experts doubt whether the feasibility study on insurance system reform presents credible projections and guarantees regarding the viability of the system.

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UNHCR pushes Greece to relocate migrants to mainland, says EU must shoulder its share of burden

UNHCR has been appealing to the Greek government to use emergency measures to expedite its plans to transfer a greater number of asylum-seekers to appropriate accommodation on the mainland.  More than 36,000 asylum seekers now in reception centres designed for 5,400 people, according to the UNHCR spokesman.

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Editorial To Vima: Delusions, passions, and errors

SYRIZA believed that institutions were made to serve bourgeois political forces and their supposedly pernicious designs.

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Editorial To Vima: Liberal populism

There is nothing secret under the sun. The unveiling of liberal populism that exists within the ruling party formally occurred in Parliament.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Return to normalcy

A barrage of draft legislation which signals the government’s outlook and overall plan will be tabled in Parliament this week.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Logic

No one must forget that the electoral system must serve national and not partrisan interests.

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Mitsotakis: ‘This Parliament must become the mirror of a country that is changing’

Mitsotakis maintained that lowering the primary surplus targets is feasible 'when we demonstrate in practice our reform dynamic'.

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Mitsotakis receives parliamentary confidence vote

'I am convinced that we will manage to bring the bright Greece that we all deserve,' Mitsotakis declared.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Leaps

Judging by the political programme that PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis tabled in Parliament it appears that the overarching aim of the government is to produce as soon as possible palpable results for society.

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Editorial To Vima: Time and tolerance

The government is now obliged to present in detail its plan and programme and to implement it swiftly.

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Tasoulas elected Parliament Speaker with record 283 votes in 300-seat legislature

A lawyer by training and a protégé of the late Evangelos Averoff, Tasoulas served as Culture and Athletics Minister in the New Democracy government of Antonis Samaras.

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Questions over why ex-police chief whom Mitsotakis wanted sacked over Mati now got top ministry post

During the deadly Mati wildfire, the handling of the situation by Greek Police made matters worse as policemen were telling drivers to leave from Marathonos Avenue and to head to Mati,

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Editorial Ta Nea: Responsibility

Greece must at all costs avoid the Italian experience of governments that hang by a thread and the spectre of the country not having a government.

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Kappa Research poll: high taxes, crime citizens’ top concerns, 45 percent trust government

Nearly two-thirds of respondents viewed the election result as good for SYRIZA (which garnered nearly 32 percent of the popular vote).

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Editorial To Vima: Without self-deceptions

It is unprecedented at least for Greece for ministers to be handed envelopes outlining the duties and targets of each ministry and to be informed that they will be constantly monitored by a team operating under the PM.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Threats

The country seems to slowly be leaving the crisis behind but a state of emergency exists in various sectors which could set alight a new fire.

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NYT explains how ‘underestimated’ Mitsotakis beat detractors, gained power

'As someone who supports private enterprise and has voted in favor of L.G.B.T. rights and a less stringent approach on migration, Mr. Mitsotakis had to win over the party’s traditionalists, conservatives and right-wingers,' the report states.

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Editorial To Vima: An opportunity for Mitsotakis, a lesson for Tsipras

Citizens with their vote yesterday chose to have both a strong government and a strong opposition.

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Reuters sees austerity, unemployment behind ND landslide

Mitsotakis said in a televised address that the election outcome gave him a strong and clear mandate to change Greece.

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Mitsotakis wins in landslide, to be sworn in at 1pm tomorrow

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is scheduled to be sworn in as Prime Minister by President Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the Presidential Mansion at 1pm tomorrow, 8 July.

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Greek elections: The race for the top over the decades

Voters historically have rallied behind the two main political parties, annihilating smaller political parties.

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Marinakis welcomes political change following elections

“It is a day that takes us away from lies, hypocrisy, hatred, from a sell-out of our country, of national treachery, and all that which kept us back and has placed us and our children in debt for the coming years,” Marinakis said.

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Mitsotakis seeks strong mandate to hit the ground running, has made all cabinet picks

The greater the aggregate percentage of the vote of parties that fail to pass the three percent threshold to enter Parliament, the lower the percentage that ND will need to clinch a parliamentary majority

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Greek youth turn to New Democracy with hopes of better future

Mitsotakis has indeed made the youth vote a central part of his campaign, pledging to the social group with the largest percentage of unemployment well-paying new jobs and blasting the government for handing out benefits instead of backing the youth.

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Editorial To Vima: The great opportunity for the economy

Decisions must be taken swiftly to unblock investments entangled in bureaucratic red tape and to send a strong signal that errors of the recent past will not be repeated.

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Editorial Ta Nea: Opportunity

There is an expectation that there will not be a repeat of phenomena of extreme populism that deeply wounded the country, most notably with the extension of the crisis for an extra four years.

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New poll shows New Democracy may achieve single-party rule

The new poll gives New Democracy 35.4 percent, SYRIZA 26.2 percent, the Movement for Change 8.7 percent (one percentage point above its result in the European election)

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Editorial Ta Nea: Awareness

The political system - each party in line with its role in directing the country - must exhibit maturity the day after the election.

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Editorial To Vima: Take your life in your hands!

The government is lacking in credibility, especially if one takes into account the delusions and self-deceptions that characterised its term in office and the accumulated burdens created by its obvious mistakes.

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Editorial Ta Nea: The path to recovery

An environment of political stability is required in order for the country to ensure an unhindered path to recovery.

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Voter complacency, absenteeism enemy number one for Mitsotakis

'Complacency is unjustifiable and the electoral result cannot be taken for granted. We cannot allow even a single vote to be lost,' Mitsotakis told a crowd of party supporters in Alexandroupolis today.