Agora
Posts by Nick Malkoutzis
Between the sword and the olive branch: Dilemmas of Greek diplomacy
"In one hand Greece holds an olive branch but in the other it holds the sword of justice," said Greece's new Defence Minister Nikos Dendias as he was sworn in on Monday. The danger is, though, that Greece is bringing a sword to a gunfight. Within hours of Dendias taking over the role, the Turkish Navy corvette Büyükada was sailing in Greek waters, not far from Athens. It was the latest unsubtle reminder from Greece’s neighbour that it will not relent from testing the limits of legality in Aegean.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (387), Greece (498)
How Samaras backed himself and Greece into a corner over bailout exit
The line coming out of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s office at the end of May was that New Democracy did not lose the European Parliament elections despite receiving almost 4 percentage points less than SYRIZA. Together with PASOK, Samaras’s party had a bigger share of the vote than the opposition. The argument emanating from the government camp was that if the leftists couldn’t score a decisive victory at the tail end of the Greek depression, they would never achieve one.
Contributors: Nick Malkoutzis, Yiannis Mouzakis
Categories: Politics (387), Economy (331), Greece (498)
Growth, recovery, change and other words lost in the wind
Unable to devalue their currency during this crisis, eurozone policy makers have feverishly cheapened words instead. Over the last few years the value of words like solidarity, reform, competitiveness, adjustment and relief has plummeted.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (387), Economy (331), Greece (498)
Samaras seeks vote of confidence and moment of history
Pop quiz: When was the last time Greece held elections at the end of the government’s four-year term? It was in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, F.W. de Klerk started dismantling apartheid in South Africa, Soviet troops left Afghanistan, Chinese students demonstrated and were shot in Tiananmen Square and dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was executed in Romania. It is right up there with the world’s historic events.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (387), Greece (498)
![Photo by Can Esenbel [http://www.mundanepleasure.com/]](resources/toolip/img-thumb/2014/02/12/peopleblur_agora_esenbel-large.jpg "Photo by Can Esenbel [http://www.mundanepleasure.com/]")
Run this way: The recurring pattern of Greek leaders
As the Greek general elections of May (and then June) 2012 approached, every poor unfortunate European politician attempted to grab a moment in the spotlight by pontificating on whether Greece should or should not be in the single currency. While the euro vultures picked at Greece's carcass, thousands of fear-stricken Greeks withdrew their money from local banks.
Contributor: Nick Malkoutzis
Categories: Politics (387), Economy (331), Greece (498)