Athens must make some painful changes to survive and preserve its Eurozone membership. But the monetary pact needs to be fundamentally changed.
Tag: greece
PARIS — After a marathon 15-hour meeting, Greece and the 18 other Eurozone members finally reached an agreement to avoid a “Grexit.” The Greeks will keep the euro and receive financial support in exchange for implementing a stringent program of reforms by Wednesday at the latest. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed the deal which […]
From Athens’ corrupt and radical politicians to the staid bankers and diplomats of Brussels, all are to blame for the crisis in Greece. An un-lesson for modern politics.
Despite negotiations, perhaps the Greek Prime Minister wants to lead his country toward a Latin American-style leftist populism, like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Photo: Panayiotis Tzamaros/ZUMA GREECE TALKS RESTART IN BRUSSELS Eurozone leaders and Finance Ministers are meeting today in Brussels to reopen negotiations on the fate of cash-strapped Greece, two days after a resounding “No” to austerity from Greek voters. Angela Merkel declared that “time is running out” and gave Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hours to […]
From Hungary to Switzerland, fortifications are rising in the heart of Europe, where the once-heralded borderless zone is being diminished by the day.
Amid all the talk of debt, defaults and deadlines, it is not easy to understand just what is actually going on in Greece. After yesterday’s momentous referendum, we shine the spotlight on five key points to offer a way out not only for Greece and the Eurozone, but for the rest of us on information […]
PARIS — The Eurozone is going through the most serious crisis of its short history. It will emerge from it either stronger — but this requires exceptional leadership from European leaders who, so far, have shown none — or deeply weakened. If the latter is the case, we will look back in history and say […]
Greek voters have refused a bailout deal of billions of euros in exchange for more austerity measures, with a final result of 61.3% to 38.7%. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced he will step down in a blog post Monday morning due to pressure from Greece’s European partners, and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to […]
La Razón, July 1, 2015 Right-leaning Spanish daily La Razón declared Wednesday that “the Greek contagion is Podemos.” According to the Madrid-based newspaper, allowing the Spanish left-wing populist party Podemos to come into power could undermine Spain’s economy just as it has begun to recover from a deep recession. Podemos was one of several anti-establishment […]
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Who Is The Real Alexis Tsipras?
Those who know him best say Greek Prime Minister Tsipras is driven by three contradictory strands. Profile of a leader battling his ‘inner troika.’
Greece, confronted by its creditors, and Iran, facing a showdown over the nuclear dossier, may have less to lose from the failure to reach an agreement than their counterparts.
Photo: Aristidis Vafeiadakis/Zuma A LAST-MINUTE DEAL FOR GREECE? With the Greek bailout due to expire tonight at midnight and Athens expected to make a $1.8 billion payment to the IMF, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is reportedly discussing with the European Commission a last-minute deal that would avoid the country defaulting on its debt. The Guardian […]
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Extra! Greek Crisis, European Front Pages
Le Soir, June 29, 2015 The European and Greek flags billow beside each other under the headline “Disunion” on the front page of today’s Le Soir, a Brussels-based daily. Negotiations between Athens and its European creditors collapsed over the weekend, plunging the continent into a new depth of uncertainty and crisis. After European officials rejected […]
“Save Europe, drown a Greek,” reads this week’s cover of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo, which depicts International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde drowning a Greek pensioner. Largarde and other creditors now want Greece to push its retirement age to 67 and to cancel benefits for its poorest pensioners. They’ve given Greece an ultimatum to […]
Monday’s front page of Germany’s leading financial daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung shows Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis dashing to a cabinet meeting at the Maximos Mansion, seat of the Greek prime minister. As European Union and Greek leaders struggle to reach a deal to keep Greece in the Eurozone, the German daily describes Varoufakis’ […]
GREXIN OR GREXIT? Photo: Aristidis Vafeiadakis/Zuma European Union leaders welcomed an 11th-hour proposal from the Greek government last night, just hours before a crucial summit that could decide the cash-strapped country’s future in the Eurozone. The news sent European stocks up, though it’s still early to say whether a deal will be reached to avoid […]
Kos is one of the Greek islands closest to the Turkish coast and receives hundreds of Syrian and Afghan refugees every day, a heavy burden for a country already ravaged by economic crisis.
Politically speaking, Greece’s return to the drachma currency would be a defeat. But economically speaking, it doesn’t threaten European stability, and could offer the Greeks a chance at redemption.
PARIS — Europe is truly a strange character. In Greek mythology, Europa was a princess kidnapped by a white bull whose breath smelled like Crocus flowers. In today’s reality, it’s a body threatening to cut off its own limbs. Its left foot is considering stopping its own blood flow. Suffering from cramps for the past […]
Ethnos, June 2, 2015 “Dramatic night in Berlin & Athens,” reads the front page of Athens-based newspaper Ethnos“ Tuesday edition, as the heads of IMF and ECB unexpectedly joined late-night talks on the Greek debt crisis in Berlin. French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were scheduled to meet German Chancellor […]
The Greek Prime Minister’s ultimatum to Eurozone partners and other negotiators as the debt crisis reaches a critical hour. The full Le Monde editorial in English.
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Through The Lion Gate
Walking under Mycenae’s Lion Gate and its monumental lintel, you understand why they call its construction the work of “Cyclopean masonry.” How else but with the strength of giants could such imposing blocks of stone be lifted 3,300 years ago?
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‘The Greek’
This is the church where El Greco was baptized. The Spanish Renaissance painter, whose real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos, was actually born in Crete — hence his nickname, “The Greek.”
Why is debt-ridden Greece still spending more, per capita, on its military than any other country in Europe? And why are German companies so eager to sell them arms?
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Eurovision Contestants 2015: Greece
You’ve got to admire Greece and its strategic thinking: Choosing Maria Elena Kyriakou, a Cyprus-born singer, to represent the country is a very clever move indeed, and one that will without a doubt secure Athens a minimum of 12 points from the island. Ha, take that Angela Merkel! Of course, you could also be a […]
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Little Greek Eiffel
Las Vegas, Shenzhen, Mexico … Paris” Eiffel Tower has inspired countless duplicates. We came upon this one standing a mere 18-meters tall at the entrance of Filiatra, in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region.
H Efimerida ton Sintakton, April 9, 2015 Before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Wednesday, European commentators warned that Greece could become Russia’s “Trojan horse” against Brussels. But Greek newspaper H Efimerida ton Sintakton instead described the “revival of Greek-Russian relations” as a “historic opportunity for the two […]
ATHENS — In her beautiful Athens offices, billionaire Gianna Angelopoulos nurses a large cigar and calls it like she sees it on the promise of the radical-left Syriza party to levy new taxes to avoid the country going bankrup. “It’s gonna take balls,” says the 60-year-old. The wealth of her and husband Theodore is estimated […]
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The Donkey That Wanted To Be A Chameleon
That shade of blue you often find on the Greek island of Santorini was also perfect for this donkey’s saddle. “The Donkey That Wanted To Be A Chameleon” would make a great fable by Jean de La Fontaine, wouldn’t it?
The cover of this week’s issue of the German weekly Der Spiegel shows a smiling Angela Merkel spliced into a photograph of Nazi officers standing by Athens’ Parthenon during the German World War II occupation of Greece. Along with the headline, “How Europeans see Germans — the German Supremacy,” the controversial cover was published two […]
Ambitious and unafraid to anger foe or friend, the 38-year-old Speaker of Parliament may be Greece’s most powerful woman. And fighting corruption is at the top of her agenda.
By a twist of history and weight of geopolitics, Greek law recognizes the authority of Sharia in settling civil matters for the country’s Muslim minority. One widow is fighting to end this European anomaly.
German tabloid Bild gets straight to the point in its Thursday edition: “No! No more millions for the greedy Greeks!” it says on its front page. The daily suggests that their readers who are against another Greek bailout print the page, take a selfie with it and send it to their staff. The Bundestag, Germany’s […]
-OpEd- MUNICH — Talk to a Greek person about the difficult situation their country faces and you’re likely to hear some pretty astounding things. Some argue, for example, that the financial collapse came at the right moment, that without it Greece wouldn’t have been pressured into the reforms needed to halt its downward spiral. But […]
Greeks are used to making history, and they’re at it again. What will last month’s election victory of Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party mean for the future beyond Greece? And more specifically, could it mark a turning point for the urgent global issue of environmental change? A not-so-subtle fil rouge exists between economic […]
This was the week that Greece’s newly elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took his case to other European leaders in a push to renegotiate the massive Greek debt. His charisma and no-apologies leftist politics got the world talking.
A German take on new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who looks ready to peddle his sense of alienation beyond Greece’s borders? If so, Europe itself is at risk.
Pure necessity could turn Alexis Tsipras Greece’s liberal prime minister-elect, into an unexpected reformer willing to go against client politics.
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Syriza Wins Greek Election, Europe Reacts
SYRIZA WINS GREEK ELECTIONAs expected, Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza secured a resounding victory in yesterday’s general election but came just two seats short of an absolute majority in the parliamentary assembly. But the far-left party has already struck a coalition agreement with the right-wing Greek Independents, which also rejects the austerity policies that have plunged […]