Syriza

(AFP) — Greek voters will cast their ballots on Sunday in the country’s first national election of the post-bailout era, with leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza party expected to be ousted by the conservative opposition.

Alexis Tsipras has moved forward with plans to abolish Christianity as the state religion in Greece, announcing that 10,000 Orthodox Church employees will be taken off the public payroll.

Radical leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was among the few leaders representing Europe at an hours-long event commemorating the life of dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba, praising the brutal tyrant as an “international symbol of struggle and resistance” who “inspired political and social changes in Latin America.”

(REUTERS) – Greece on Monday unveiled plans to revise its constitution, formally proposing a clearer distinction between the state and the powerful Orthodox Church, changes in how the president is elected and limiting terms of lawmakers in parliament.

Spain is facing political chaos after yesterday’s election produced no clear winner and saw a surge in support for the far-left. The governing conservative People’s Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy remains the largest party but fell well short of

Greek unions are holding their second general strike in less than a month Thursday, this time against a planned social security overhaul that could enforce new pension cuts. The labour ministry is working on a new system under which state-guaranteed

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged listeners at the UN General Assembly Thursday to avoid “the same old recipes” to solve conflicts, and warned against “unilateral action” to solve problems like the civil war in Syria, which may put Tsipras at odds with his Russian allies.

Contents: Ben Carson’s statement about Muslim President revives JFK Catholic controversy; Syriza wins election in Greece, on eve of drastic new reforms

ATHENS, Greece — The official projection of final results in Greece’s early election shows the left-wing Syriza party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras winning with 35.5 percent, but falling short of enough parliamentary seats to form a government on

As Greece braces for parliamentary elections on September 20, ruling Radical Left party Syriza finds itself slipping in the polls and possibly handing the nation back to the center-right, chasing an ever-elusive youth vote.

Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras played down fears on Sunday that a snap election in two weeks would produce a fractured result, saying there were enough undecided voters to produce a clear winner on the day. Tsipras resigned last

From Reuters: Former Greek premier Alexis Tsipras urged supporters on Saturday to give him a mandate to complete the country’s political transformation, as a poll showed his leftist Syriza party’s lead slipping ahead of elections next month. Tsipras abruptly resigned

The left-wing Syriza party says Yanis Varoufakis and others who voted against Greece’s latest bailout package will not be allowed to run for parliament under the Syriza banner in the upcoming snap election. For his part, Varoufakis said he would stand

Greece’s president formally gave the conservative opposition a chance on Friday to form a new government after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned, but the country appears almost certain to be heading to an election next month. Tsipras quit on

In a televised address to his people, he said he had a moral duty to resign, because he was elected (just over half a year ago!) as a staunch opponent of the austerity measures he now believes it necessary to impose, in order to keep Greece in the Euro and secure its future.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the socialist Syriza party will reportedly step down and call for snap elections on September 20, rocking his already crisis-riddled nation with fresh wave of political turmoil. A formal announcement of his resignation is expected Thursday afternoon, along with a televised address to the Greek people.

One of the terms of Greece’s bailout deal involves selling off government monopolies and privatizing their operations.

As Greeks prepare for the beginning of the school year in September, there are serious concerns among Ministry of Education officials that as many as 27,000 teacher and university professor positions will remain unfilled. Officials are scrambling to recruit substitute teachers with fewer certifications to fill classrooms.

The radical leftist party Podemos (“We Can”) that took Spain by storm last year is suffering major poll losses leading into Spain’s parliamentary elections in November, a new government poll shows, as Spanish observers grow wary of socialism following the decline of the Greek economy.

No scene of political turmoil is complete until somebody gets investigated by prosecutors. Such is the fate of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has become a darling of the anti-austerity, hardcore left ever since he departed his office on the eve of the 11th-hour bailout deal.

On Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras floated the idea of calling for early elections in Greece to “bolster a parliamentary majority that has been strained by bailout reforms demanded by creditors,” as Reuters put it. Such is the chaos of end-state socialism in Greece that Tsipras really needs his own party to lose in those early elections. The Syriza party is coming unglued over the austerity components of Greece’s latest bailout package.

ATHENS, July 26 – Some members of Greece’s leftist government wanted to raid central bank reserves and hack taxpayer accounts to prepare a return to the drachma, according to reports on Sunday that highlighted the chaos in the ruling Syriza party.

Contents: Burundi’s president Nkurunziza continues to provoke Hutu-Tutsi tensions; Greece’s Tsipras lashes out at his own party as new vote approaches; Where will Greece’s 86 billion euro bailout come from?

There was speculation Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund’s disapproval of the European Union bailout package for Greece would stiffen resistance in the Greek Parliament against it, but in the end, they voted in agreement with what Reuters describes as “sweeping austerity measures demanded by lenders to open talks on a new multibillion-euro bailout package to keep Greece in the euro.”

Contents: Greece approves harsh reforms as IMF throws Europe under the bus; Japan’s Shinzo Abe pushes ‘collective defense’ bill for vote; Mexico’s first ‘historic’ attempt to re-privatize oil industry flops

Following a referendum in which the Greek people largely rejected a debt deal with the EU and IMF requiring further austerity measures, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been cornered into selling the Greek Parliament an agreement even stricter than the one the referendum rejected. In doing so, he faces the herculean challenge of proving his new demand is not a complete about-face for him or his leftist party.

Stocks rallied on Monday amid news that the Greek financial crisis was under control, and a bailout deal had been agreed upon, but that might have been a hasty celebration.

The seemingly final deadline for serious Greek proposals in the debt showdown was Friday morning, and some paperwork was indeed delivered on schedule, inducing some optimism that a Greek exit from the Euro would be averted. Depending on who you ask, the deal is either a stunning triumph or disastrous capitulation for either Greece or its creditors.

All sorts of deadlines have come and gone during the Greek debt crisis—as the basket-case nation’s European creditors repeatedly blinked and decided to grant one extension after another—unwilling to precipitate the pan-European (and possibly global) financial earthquake of a “Grexit” from the Euro.

Antonis Samaras, the head of Greece’s conservative New Democracy party, has resigned from leadership following the nation’s resounding rejection of Eurozone debt repayment terms in a referendum on Sunday. Samaras will be remembered most for being the only prime minister in the last decade to accept austerity measures and attempt to curb Greece’s spending during the current crisis.

Contents: Europe enters a dangerous period after Greece’s Tsipras wins overwhelming victory; China takes emergency measures to stem stock market panic; China’s ‘Market Stabilization Fund’ mimics America’s ‘Organized Support’ in 1929; In lavish ceremony, the new King of Tonga is crowned — by an Australian

As the ruling Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) vocally demands the Greek people vote “no” on a referendum regarding European Union debt repayment terms on Sunday, an unlikely voice has emerged representing the opposition “yes” vote, interpreted as a vote in favor of keeping the Euro as currency and remaining in the Euro: electro-pop megastar Sakis Rouvas.

Contents: Greece heads for further chaos with referendum on Sunday; IMF report on Greece raising concerns about IMF’s credibility; China hunts for ‘stock manipulators’ as market crashes

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has forced all banks in the country to shut down and limit the amount of money Greeks can withdraw from ATMs. This is in anticipation of a July 5 referendum on whether Greece should accept economic reforms in exchange for a shot at not defaulting on its $271 billion debt to the European Union and the IMF.

UPDATE: European Central Bank confirms it will maintain emergency liquidity assistance to Greek banks. – The most dramatic day yet in Greece’s months long economic crisis saw a run on banks and the confirmation of next Sunday’s referendum on a bailout deal.

Greece is currently considering a measure that would grant citizenship to second-generation immigrants, defined as children born in Greece to parents who have lived there legally for at least five years, with an added requirement that applicants must be properly enrolled in a primary school.