ATHENS — Kimberly Guilfoyle’s arrival in Greece has triggered a level of attention usually reserved for pop stars or prime ministers. In the month since she exploded onto the scene in Athens, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador has fused tabloid-level fascination with high-stakes geopolitics, championing major U.S.-backed energy projects and touching off a diplomatic confrontation with China over control of one of Greece’s most strategic ports. A former Fox News host and prosecutor who was once married to California Governor Gavin Newsom and dated Donald Trump, Jr., Guilfoyle has dazzled the Greek capital with flashy television showings and unapologetic diplomatic muscle-flexing.  Guilfoyle’s approach has elicited grumblings from some opposition figures concerned about the extent to which Greek policy appears to be shaped by the American embassy. Though she was a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump during his presidency and a key fundraiser in his political operation, her appointment as ambassador came as a surprise even within Republican circles. But that hasn’t stopped lifestyle shows from featuring her outfits and her ability to cut Greek dance moves, or politicians and businesspeople from lining up to stand next to her during her diplomatic outings.  For the most part, her description of Greeks, uttered in 2015 when she was a journalist, as “freeloaders” who need to be punished like a dog who “pees on the rug,” is long forgotten. Kimberly Guilfoyle arrives at the Greek Presidential Palace to present her credentials to the Greek president in Athens on Nov. 4, 2025. | Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images At a Thanksgiving dinner organized by the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, Guilfoyle took the stage last week in a figure-hugging, floor-length lace gown. “Kalispera,” she told the assembled businesspeople and dignitaries. The crowd cheered her deployment of the Greek greeting. She left the event through a gauntlet of lifestyle reporters eager to get footage of the departing ambassador.  “Ms. Guilfoyle, your dress is so beautiful,” one of them gushed. SOCIAL BLITZ Guilfoyle, who declined to be interviewed for this article, landed in Athens on Nov. 1 in a private jet belonging to Greek businessman Eric Vassilatos and immediately plunged into a week of high-profile appearances.  A day after her arrival — and a formal dinner at a central luxury hotel — her favorite Greek singer, Konstantinos Argyros, staged a special event at the nightclub where he performs to mark her debut. Ministers, bankers and business figures rushed to attend the unusual invitation issued by a pop star. “I will not disappoint the U.S. and Greece,” she said, dressed in a sparkling silver gown and fur jacket, before linking arms with high-profile guests for traditional Greek folk dances. Her first official meeting, a credential presentation with Greek President Konstantinos Tassoulas, quickly went viral after she recounted discovering Greece while on honeymoon. “Honeymoon was fabulous — but the marriage?” Tassoulas quipped. “We’ll work on getting a new husband,” she replied. The galas have scarcely paused. Usually accompanied by her son Ronan, her stylist Fancy James or her close associate Cassidy Kofoed, the ambassador has already been presented with a medal by the municipality of Hydra and named honorary president of the Propeller Club Port of Piraeus.  Business groups have organized a steady stream of receptions in her honor while cameras have tracked her from basketball games, where she sat among team owners, to a fashion show. DEAL MAKING The social blitz has coincided with a burst of activity on substance, with Guilfoyle wielding her ambassadorial power in the service of a series of deals between Washington and Athens. During her first week in office, Greece signed an agreement with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil to begin offshore drilling — the country’s first such project in more than 40 years — with U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on hand, a move that sees Athens diverging from EU climate-action plans. Days later, Athens and Kyiv struck a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas to help Ukraine meet its winter needs, making Greece the first EU country to participate directly in Washington’s effort to replace “every last molecule of Russian gas” with American LNG. The deal was sealed during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Guilfoyle attended the signing and stood between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Zelenskyy for the official photograph — underscoring the U.S. role in the decision.  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets with new U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle at Maximos mansion in Athens, Greece on Nov. 5, 2025. | Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images She made her priorities even clearer at an embassy dinner with political and business leaders: “If you buy LNG from us, I will invite you again. Otherwise … you’re off the guest list.” She angered China in her first media interview, in which she called China’s ownership of the Port of Piraeus “unfortunate” and floated the idea that it could be “worked out” — suggesting a potential sale.  Beijing blasted the remarks as “malicious slander” and “serious interference in Greek internal affairs.” “The investment is a model of mutual cooperation and not geopolitical influence,” said Chinese Ambassador Fang Qiu. Shortly after the controversy, Athens accelerated plans for a new U.S.-backed port in Elefsina — a project discussed in a meeting between Guilfoyle and Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos and fast-tracked days later through parliament without a tender.  Opposition parties denounced the move as opaque and politically driven. “We are not a country where an ambassador announces policies,” said Anna Diamantopoulou, a member of the opposition socialist PASOK party and a former European commissioner. “As a country, shouldn’t we discuss them in parliament?”  The Exxon deal has also attracted criticism.  The Greek prime minister “is bowing to the interests of U.S. companies,” said Sokratis Famellos, leader of the left-wing opposition Syriza party. “We are seeing our country being turned into a gateway for American LNG, because that is in the interests of American companies.” At times, even the government has bristled at the American enthusiasm for Greek affairs. In a newspaper interview Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack suggested that he and Guilfoyle could lead a rapprochement between Athens and Ankara: “She’s a great friend of mine. We’ve talked about it with our president and said, “Could we be the mortar, somehow, in bringing these two bricks together in a new way, bit by bit?” This week, in a briefing with journalists, the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochiou brushed back the suggestion. “We handle issues with Turkey bilaterally, as required by international law,” she said. “Therefore, no third-party initiative has been undertaken and no such proposal has been submitted to Greece.” PRESIDENTIAL VISIT Guilfoyle’s reception stands in stark contrast to past views of the U.S. in Greece. For decades Washington’s relationship with Athens was marked by distrust — from anger over American support for the 1967–74 junta to street protests in the 1980s against U.S. bases and frustrations over Washington’s neutrality toward Turkey. Former diplomats recall checking under their cars for bombs and receiving little cooperation from Greek authorities during periods of anti-American violence. Former U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt recalled a 2018 visit to Greece by then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that was disrupted by protests against a U.S.-backed agreement with North Macedonia. With tear gas pouring into the basement of the concert hall, Ross and his wife were hustled into an SUV. “Wilbur Ross’s wife was asking me if this was going to be like ‘Homeland,’” Pyatt said. “And I told her that no, everything was going to be fine, and nobody was going to get hurt. There were just some protesters who wanted to get things off their chest.” That dynamic shifted after Greece’s long financial crisis. As Europe imposed harsh austerity, Washington took a more sympathetic line and defense ties deepened dramatically. By 2022, Athens had granted the U.S. open-ended access to four key bases, and Pyatt says concerns that once dominated bilateral talks “have now gone away,” replaced by what he calls a “robust defense partnership.” Guilfoyle has said she would love to see U.S. President Donald Trump visit Athens.  “Well, of course, we would all love that, wouldn’t we?” she said in an interview with Greek television. “Have [Trump] give a speech at the Acropolis. I hope he will come, I’ll ask him to come.”

ATHENS — A doctor whose daughter was killed in a train crash has emerged as the unlikely figurehead of a wave of protests against the political establishment in Greece. Many want Maria Karystianou to run for office, believing an outsider would be the best person to shake up a country that has been rocked by a series of scandals and where trust in politicians has plummeted. Karystianou, a 52-year-old pediatrician, is the president of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association, which is seeking justice for those involved in the February 2023 train crash in Tempi in which 57 people died, mostly students. Her 19-year-old daughter Marthi was one of those who died in the deadliest rail crash in Greek history, a disaster that raised deep concerns about the functioning of the state and resulted in mass street protests. “Greece has gone off the rails and remains there,” Karystianou said, juxtaposing the train crash and Greek politics. “I cannot bear to live in such a society, and I cannot imagine how we will continue to live with such a corrupt political system. This is an urgent need of society that cannot be met by the existing political system.” While speculation that Karystianou might be launching a political career has been rampant in local media, she has refused to confirm or deny the rumors, including when she spoke with POLITICO. Any new political movement would join a fragmented landscape, according to opinion polls, one that is overshadowed by profound distrust in the government and low support for the ruling party, the center-right New Democracy of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. With opposition parties also divided and unable to take advantage, some polls suggest a new political movement led by Karystianou could draw the support of 25 percent of voters. “I want to see something new, as does a large part of society. I also belong to this 25 percent,” she said. The deadly Tempi train crash “remains in the news mainly because it has managed to form a voice of opposition and express protest against the government and the political system more broadly. The protest is not necessarily anti-establishment but rather a voice of despair over the government’s chronic incompetence,” said Lamprini Rori, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Athens. THE TRAGEDY THAT HAUNTS THE GOVERNMENT The train crash left a deep scar on Greece. Two trains traveling at high speed in opposite directions on the same line — one carrying at least 150 people and one filled with cargo — collided head-on, killing 57 people and injuring 85. The disaster shone a spotlight on Greece’s aging 2,550-kilometer rail network, which had long faced criticism for alleged mismanagement, unfit equipment and poor maintenance.  “It is an open wound, as it is a crime committed by the state,” said Costas Eleftheriou, an assistant professor at Democritus University of Thrace and political analysis coordinator at the ENA Institute for Alternative Policies, an Athens think tank. “A railway that never operated according to the required specifications, a ministry leadership that assured it was safe, and then the conditions for the administration of justice are not being met.” In the February 2023 train crash in Tempi, 57 people died, mostly students. | Daneil Yovkov and Hans Lucas/Getty Images “Since those in government and opposition are unable to address the problem, we are currently in a deadlock.” Polls show that the vast majority of Greeks believe the government is trying to cover up what really happened and who was to blame. There have been claims that highly flammable chemicals were being transported. In March 2024 the Mitsotakis government survived a vote of no confidence, but its handling of the fallout has only intensified the scrutiny, with Athens dismissing a call from the European public prosecutor to take action over the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers. (The government made use of a provision in the Greek constitution that gives ministers immunity.) That’s where Karystianou comes in. Hailing from a middle-class background, she has gained national fame and become a symbol of the call for justice, winning a reputation for speaking clearly but with emotion. Her every word is now scrutinized by supporters and opponents alike. “I feel ashamed that a European prosecutor would come and say that our constitution protects ministers from accountability. This constitutional provision is abused by politicians even in cases of felonies, such as Tempi,” Karystianou said. The victims’ association has organized protests in Greece and beyond, as well as concerts and other events to keep the case in the public eye. Karystianou and other relatives of those who died in the crash have received hundreds of messages from Greeks encouraging the creation of a new political movement. Her phone also buzzes constantly with calls from MPs and political officials pledging to sign up if she does start a party. “A huge lack of trust in the ruling party and the opposition parties has created a demand in society for unconventional politics,” said Eleftheriou, the assistant professor. “When voters think of the victims’ families, they say, ‘These are people like us, and they are claiming their rights.’ They can understand their goal, identify with it, and rally behind it.” ON HUNGER STRIKE The latest street protests were part of a campaign by the families of victims to have their loved ones exhumed, both for identification and so that toxicological and other tests can be performed to check for the presence of flammable material. Panos Ruci, whose son Denis was killed in the crash, went on a 23-day hunger strike and camped outside the Greek parliament to put pressure on the government to agree to the exhumation request. Judicial authorities, who had said no to the request, eventually agreed to dig up the bodies. A group called Till the End has set up a makeshift memorial for the Tempi victims and has written the names of the 57 victims in red paint in front of the parliament. Every night for the past eight months at 11:18 p.m. — the time of the crash — the protesters read out the names of the dead. The government has said it will pass an amendment this month that will stop the mourners and protesters from gathering there, a decision that has met strong opposition.  “The systematic and detailed efforts of the victims’ relatives to find evidence of administrative incompetence in the government’s response to the accident reinforced popular opposition to the ruling party,” said Iannis Konstantinidis, associate professor with the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Macedonia. “The victims’ relatives — already having the moral high ground — also gained the political upper hand against a government that was perceived as inadequate at best.” However, he added, moral support doesn’t automatically translate into electoral support: “Their political opponents can attack them with arguments that do not concern morality but rather their inexperience or governability. Their moral and symbolic capital will then be insufficient.” Such attacks from rivals are something Karistianou will have to get used to if she decides to become a politician. “None of us can respond to what Karistianou is saying,” Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis told local radio station Parapolitika. “I respect her as a mother who lost her child. But if she becomes our political opponent tomorrow, she won’t have the same immunity and treatment. She’ll be our political opponent.” “None of us can respond to what Karistianou is saying,” Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Another problem, according to Rori at the University of Athens, is that new parties find it extremely difficult to survive, even if they manage to stick around for a couple of elections. “The intense debate surrounding the possibility of a new party led by Karistianou highlights the need for opposition representation and a potential political opportunity for a newcomer to the political scene. However, it is more likely that such a party would be stillborn — yet another flash party.” MORE NEW PARTIES Despite New Democracy’s decline in the polls, which suggests it would be unable to form a majority government if elections were held today, no serious challenger to Mitsotakis has emerged. Meanwhile, Greece’s former left-wing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, stepped down as an MP earlier this month, as speculation mounts that he is planning to form a new party. Pollsters have been trying to predict the public’s reaction to a potential new political party led by Tsipras and reckon that his potential base could be up to 20 percent of the electorate. While he has not officially confirmed rumors about a new party, Tsipras implied as much in his public resignation statement, telling former colleagues in the left-wing Syriza party: “We will not be rivals. Perhaps soon, we will travel together again to more beautiful seas.” Tsipras said he plans to publish a book by the end of the year on his time as prime minister. Another party from the right of the political spectrum is likely to emerge from former Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras. He was expelled from the party last year after strongly criticizing government policies, including on the relationship with neighboring Turkey, as well as what he considers “woke” approaches such as legislation recognizing same-sex marriage. There have been media reports that Karystianou could join forces with Samaras on a new political movement, as one of her associates used to be an adviser to the ex-PM. According to pollsters, some 9 percent of voters could potentially support a new party led by Samaras, which is expected to adopt an agenda that owes more than a little to U.S. President Donald Trump.

ATHENS — Greece’s center-right New Democracy government announced Cabinet changes on Saturday following a wave of resignations in a massive scheme to defraud the EU’s farm budget. Thanos Plevris, a hardline MP with the nationalist Laos party, was appointed migration minister. He succeeds Makis Voridis, the highest profile official to resign on Friday after the European prosecutor implicated Greek ministers in the multimillion-euro scam involving EU agricultural funds. Other changes in the government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis include the appointments of Haris Theocharis as deputy foreign minister; Yiannis Andrianos as deputy minister for rural development and food; and Christos Dermentzopoulos as deputy minister of digital governance. Opposition parties were quick to criticize the appointment of Plevris. “The far-right line of Mitsotakis continues unabated with the choice of Thanos Plevris, an inhumane, dead-end and frightening line overall for the refugee issue and the image of the country,” the Syriza party said in a statement. The New Left party called his appointment “a message of hatred, racism, authoritarianism.” In a statement, the party recalled comments by Plevris in the past that “border security cannot exist if there are no casualties and, to be clear, if there are no deaths.” The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greeks received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, thereby depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. The fraud was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year. The hefty case file was referred to the Greek parliament as it included information regarding the alleged involvement “in criminal offenses” of two former ministers overseeing the rural development and food portfolio. According to Greek law, only the national parliament has the authority to investigate and prosecute current or former members of the Greek government. This means that, despite its broad mandate to investigate the misuse of EU funds, the EPPO lacks the power to pursue such cases in Greece. The agency has called this a violation of its founding EU regulation. Earlier Saturday, two more New Democracy officials stepped down after their names appeared in the case file. Andreas Karasarinis, secretary of the ruling party’s agricultural organizations, and Yiannis Troullinos, a member of its political committee, submitted their resignations.

ATHENS — Greece’s parliament on Thursday voted to investigate former Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis from the ruling New Democracy party over his role in the country’s deadliest rail crash. The vote took place in the early hours after a heated and often acrimonious parliamentary session. The vote paves the way for a special parliamentary committee that will determine whether Karamanlis’ immunity should be waived so he can face criminal indictment for any potential liabilities that contributed to the head-on collision that killed 57 people, most of them students, in February 2023 in Tempi. According to Greek law, only the country’s parliament can investigate allegations of misconduct against former ministers. Karamanlis maintained his innocence during the debate but requested to be referred both to the committee and subsequently to the judicial authorities. There were three separate proposals for investigating the rail disaster: New Democracy’s proposal targeted only Karamanlis and only on felony charges; the main opposition Pasok’s proposal named eight political figures; a third proposal, submitted by citizens including a victim’s relative and supported by smaller parties and independent lawmakers, targeted 11 political figures, including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself, with charges of high treason. The proposal by the ruling party, which holds the majority in government, eventually passed. Opposition parties have accused the government of tabling its own proposal to avoid felony charges against government members. Last year, the government dismissed a call from the European public prosecutor to take action regarding potential misappropriation committed by Karamanlis.

ATHENS — Greece’s opposition parties are demanding an investigation into the government’s ties to a politically connected communications company that they link to shadow financing and online propaganda for the ruling New Democracy party. The questions about the role of the PR company focus on a host of top New Democracy officials and close associates of center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — including Thanasis Bakolas, outgoing secretary general of the European People’s Party, the pan-EU grouping of center-right parties. The little-known communications company at the heart of the political furor is called Blue Skies, and was founded by Thomas Varvitsiotis, the son and brother of former New `Democracy ministers, and Yiannis Olympios. Blue Skies is an offshoot of the far better known V+O agency, which represents some of Greece’s biggest businesses. It was founded in 2003 with V+O as a shareholder and Varvitsiotis and Olympios as board members. At the time, it shared the same headquarters as V+O. The opposition’s main allegation is that Blue Skies employed high-profile New Democracy officials as a form of undisclosed political funding and that some 15 of the agency’s employees engaged in social media trolling to promote Mitsotakis’ interests, including attacking the families of victims of the country’s worst rail disaster in 2023. The government denies any link to the agency. OPPOSITION WANTS ANSWERS The main opposition center-left Pasok party is demanding “answers about the activities of this company and the links between New Democracy, a propaganda machine and private companies, between which, according to publications, black political money seems to be produced and channelled.” “After so many revelations, we expect the immediate intervention of the competent judicial authorities,” the party said in a statement on Tuesday. The opposition’s main allegation is that Blue Skies employed high-profile New Democracy officials as a form of undisclosed political funding and that some 15 of the agency’s employees engaged in social media trolling to promote Mitsotakis’ interests, including attacking the families of victims of the country’s worst rail disaster in 2023. | Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP via Getty Images Opposition Syriza MEP Kostas Arvanitis called on EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath and the European Parliament “to act accordingly in order to restore the confidence of Greek citizens in the democratic process.” New Left MP Nasos Iliopoulos complained: “The evidence raises reasonable suspicions that public funding is being used to sustain the government’s propaganda, in flagrant violation of the Constitution and the laws on transparency of political money. This is an extreme institutional aberration that undermines democracy.” BIG PARTY NAMES More than half of the 57 people officially listed as employees of Blue Skies had high-ranking positions close to Mitsotakis or New Democracy at the same time, according to a report in Documento newspaper. None listed their corporate PR roles on their CVs. In addition to outgoing EPP Secretary-General Bakolas, the names include Minister of Labor and Social Security Domna Michailidou and Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis. Most of them appear to have worked at the company when Mitsotakis took over the party leadership in 2016, and stopped in 2019 when New Democracy was elected and they received official roles. Others, like Orsaki Roussetou, who works in the prime minister’s communications office, continue to appear on the company’s payroll. When asked specifically about Bakolas, Michailidou, Kyranakis and Roussetou, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis dismissed the accusations, saying many party members would naturally receive their income from the private sector when not in a paid party role. “In New Democracy, a party position, a position, that is, in the party, is not a job. In parallel with this position, people work in the private sector,” he told a press briefing. The opposition’s objection is that Blue Skies looks like a New Democracy shadow operation, but Marinakis called that allegation “a relic of science fiction.” Instead, he said he supported public officials having experience of the private sector. “I don’t know in which companies these people have worked. It is good that they are working in the private sector and we still want more executives who are working either in the public or private sector and at the same time working for the party they believe in,” he argued. Bakolas declined to comment. Kyranakis confirmed to local television that he was employed by Blue Skies from 2016 to 2019, when he served as deputy party spokesman, and argued that he was “a normal employee who paid taxes normally.” Government officials did not respond to a request for comment on Roussetou. When asked about specific politicians’ connections with Blue Skies, representatives for the PR company declined to comment. In addition to outgoing EPP Secretary-General Bakolas, the names include Minister of Labor and Social Security Domna Michailidou and Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis. | Konstantinos Tsakalidis/AFP via Getty Images “Unfortunately, we cannot comment on specific individuals and their role at Blue Skies due to Greek data protection laws, which do not allow companies to provide information on current or former employees,” representatives of the group said in a statement. More broadly, however, the representatives of the group argued the criticism about indirect party funding “does not correspond to reality.”  “The truth is that, in the past, many of our businesses have employed people with an understanding of the policy and political world to help us navigate the complicated waters of crises. This is a standard market practice followed by our peers in both the Greek and international markets. This reality has been distorted.” PROPAGANDA MACHINE The opposition’s demand for a probe into potentially problematic political funding comes on the back of a controversy about the involvement of some 15 employees of Blue Skies in a “propaganda machine” of social media creators aiming to support Mitsotakis’ government. This was revealed in a separate investigation by the “Inside Story” website. The “Inside Story” investigation focused on a news site called “Team Truth” with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, run by two people working for Blue Skies. The account has sparked particular outrage with its attacks on families of victims of the Tempi train crash, which has become a major political headache for the Mitsotakis government. The PR company has distanced itself from the activities of those employees, insisting “Team Truth” and other anonymous accounts were not a company project. “As a company we do not monitor the social media accounts of our employees. However we absolutely condemn any use of anonymity to cause harm or defamation,” the representatives of the company said in a statement. Ministers and government officials, however, issued statements to defend “the kids comprising Team Truth.” “I have great respect for them,” Marinakis said. “I have absolutely no involvement with them,” he added, but insisted he supported them against the “smear campaign.”

ATHENS — Tens of thousands of Greeks poured into the streets on Sunday to demand justice over a crash that killed 57 people — the country’s worst. One of the largest demonstrations in recent years took place in the capital’s Syntagma Square in front of the parliament, while protests took place in more than 100 cities in Greece and abroad. Protesters were holding banners reading “I have no oxygen,” echoing a young woman’s last words in a call to an emergency line, published by local media last week. “Citizens are disillusioned. The growing crisis of trust in institutions is evident as the distinction between executive power and the judiciary continues to erode, especially in cases like the Tempe tragedy,” said Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the main opposition party Pasok. “This is what in history we call a breakthrough,” New Left leader Alexis Charitsis said. “The social front has shaken the whole country.” The head-on collision of a freight train and a passenger train packed with students took place just before midnight on Feb. 28, 2023. Almost two years later, a trial is yet to start and keeps getting pushed back by delays in key parts of the investigation. Greece’s ruling New Democracy government failed to heed a call from the European public prosecutor to take action regarding the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers following the train crash. The government, which was reelected after the railway tragedy, denies the accusations. The latest call for answers comes after audio evidence leaked last week indicated that some 30 of the 57 victims of the tragedy were still alive after the crash and died later, possibly as a result of asphyxiation or burns, as the collision caused a massive explosion and fire. The government’s proposal of former parliament speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas for the Greek presidency last week, further angered the relatives, who say that under his watch the parliament refused to attribute any political responsibility. “We want to ensure that no crime goes unpunished,” said Maria Karystianou, a representative of the association of families the victims, who lost her daughter and called the events a “mafia-style operation to cover up the truth.” Clashes erupted at the end of the protests in Athens and Thessaloniki. “The government responded to the request for oxygen with tear gas and flash grenades,” the opposition Syriza party said in a statement.

Greece’s Syriza party cracked up further over the weekend and is about to officially lose its status as the country’s main opposition. The party’s recently deposed leader Stefanos Kasselakis announced on Saturday the creation of a new political movement, taking at least four MPs with him. Speaking to a large cheering crowd outside his new headquarters, the U.S. expat declared that “Syriza has closed its democratic chapter” and positioned himself as the leader of a new, progressive political force. “Today is a joyful day because a movement of democracy, free citizens, and progress is being created,” he said and wished “good luck” to those remaining in Syriza. “We are creating a movement from society, for society,” he added and told his supporters that they will decide how it will be called. “The party will be yours, and I will be your servant,” Kasselakis said. The move comes a day after Syriza officially confirmed that Kasselakis would not be able to run again for the party leadership in elections set for Nov. 24, with a runoff on Dec. 1 if necessary. Scenes of chaos unfolded with hundreds of Kasselakis supporters — known as “Kasselistas” — trying to storm the makeshift venue, claiming that they were deliberately excluded. Scuffles, pushing, verbal attacks and booing were reported, while police and fire service were summoned to provide security. Amid the turmoil, four candidates for the leadership — MPs Sokratis Famellos and Pavlos Polakis, MEP Nikolas Farantouris and actor Apostolos Gletsos — were formally confirmed. The left-wing Syriza, which governed Greece from 2015 to 2019, has been facing an existential crisis since it was crushed in last year’s election by conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. That defeat sparked the resignation of Syriza’s charismatic leader, Alexis Tsipras. In September 2023, Kasselakis was elected from nowhere to head Syriza. Since then, the party has been mired in toxic infighting. Kasselakis, a former Goldman Sachs trader, faced criticism over his opinions on the economy, NATO, and Israel, which were seen as far apart from that of the left. The legitimacy of his wealth declaration was questioned. A media tour of his posh apartment in a rich Athenian neighborhood, while employees at the party newspaper and radio station were left unpaid for months, was also heavily criticized. Last November, dozens of members left Syriza and created the New Left party. The discord has swelled since the party’s poor performance in June’s EU elections, with Kasselakis maintaining an aggressive stance against the majority of the party’s members and particularly toward his predecessor, Tsipras. He was eventually blocked from standing as a candidate for the Syriza leadership after he sent a legal threat to the party last month. Since Friday evening, four MPs have announced they are leaving Syriza, while some eight more could follow them. Until Friday, Syriza had 35 MPs in the Greek parliament, followed by Socialists Pasok with 31 MPs, which means that by Monday Pasok could probably have replaced it as the country’s main opposition.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cast doubt on suggestions the EU could process asylum applications outside the bloc — and added that Greece actually needs migrant laborers to harvest its olives. “Let me be careful here. This is a bilateral arrangement,” Mitsotakis told the Financial Times on Thursday, referring to Italy’s deal with Albania to establish detention centers in the non-EU country for male migrants who arrive by sea. “I don’t know whether it could be replicated at the European level,” he added. “We also have to see if it actually works. These people are processed according to Italian asylum legislation, and whatever happens to them, they will in one way or another, be returned to Italy. “If we were to do so at the European level … where would they go?” he said. Under a deal struck in 2023, Tirana agreed that Rome could send up to 36,000 male migrants who have been stopped in international waters each year to two asylum-processing centers in northern Albania, where they will have their asylum claims fast-tracked and be deported if unsuccessful. The deal — which follows an even harsher British scheme, which has since been scuppered, to send migrants permanently to Rwanda — has received a tentative endorsement from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said there are “lessons” to draw from it. Fifteen other EU member countries have written to the Commission requesting it explores similar models, with the Netherlands this week reportedly investigating the possibility of sending rejected asylum-seekers to Uganda. Migration is widely expected to be the most pressing issue on the agenda of Thursday’s European Council summit in Brussels. But while cracking down on undocumented migration was crucial to leaders, Mitsotakis said the bloc was also in dire need of more workers to backfill its aging workforce. “If you want to build a big fence, you also need a big door,” Mitsotakis said. “Who is going to pick our olives? We are a continent that is shrinking, and we all recognize that in order to maintain our productivity, we will need labor, unskilled or skilled.”

Greek police arrested an Israeli mining billionaire convicted for his role in a Romanian corruption scheme, Greek authorities and his lawyer said Monday. Beny Steinmetz, who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Romanian authorities over an illegal land grab, was detained in Athens on Sunday after arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv and released on €5,000 bail. “There was a decision of the European court which ruled that the warrant by Romanian authorities must be executed,” a senior Greek police official told POLITICO. “The prosecutor’s office was informed and this way the police was also alerted and proceeded to the arrest. However, he was later on Monday released on bail with restrictions,” the official added, meaning Steinmetz cannot leave Greece while he awaits a court decision. The arrest is the latest twist in a yearslong legal saga involving Steinmetz, who was convicted in 2020 by Romania’s highest court of being part of a plot to illegally claim ownership of lands that once belonged to the country’s defunct monarchy. But Greece and Cyprus refused to extradite him to Romania, citing the country’s inhumane prison conditions, and Interpol canceled its arrest warrant. His co-defendants, including the Romanian prince Paul, also successfully challenged Romanian extradition requests in other EU countries.  Steinmetz’s lawyer Stavros Togias called the decision to arrest his client “unprecedented.” “The decision to detain Mr Steinmetz, which concerns his case in Romania, constitutes a blatant abuse of process by the Romanian authorities,” Togias said. “It is unprecedented for the rule of law in Greece, and in any other favoured country, for such an administrative act to annul a decision of the Greek judiciary, which has ruled definitively and irrevocably against his extradition to Romania, recognising his right to travel freely,” he added.

ATHENS — Greece’s Syriza party is heading for another splintering and potentially the loss of its status as the country’s main opposition. Syriza’s Central Committee decided late Saturday that its recently deposed leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, cannot be a candidate in the party’s upcoming leadership battle. The overwhelming vote against Kasselakis came in a session full of tensions, verbal attacks, booing and boycott efforts. The socialist Pasok party is also in the process of electing a new leader, in what could be a moment of reckoning for the future of the country’s center left. The left-wing Syriza, which governed Greece from 2015 to 2019, has been facing an existential crisis since it was crushed in last year’s election by conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. That defeat sparked the resignation of Syriza’s charismatic leader, Alexis Tsipras. In September 2023, U.S. expat and former Goldman Sachs trader Stefanos Kasselakis was elected from nowhere to head Syriza, since which time the party has been mired in toxic infighting. Last November, dozens of members left Syriza and created the New Left party. The discord has swelled since the party’s poor performance in June’s EU election, and has seen court threats, verbal assaults and even the police summoned to provide security at party headquarters. Kasselakis has maintained an aggressive stance against the majority of the party’s members and particularly toward his predecessor, Tsipras. Last month Kasselakis was ousted by the party’s leadership via a motion of no confidence, amid accusations of authoritarian behavior and of not aligning ideologically with the party. He was later blocked from standing as a candidate for the Syriza leadership after he sent a legal threat to the party last week, calling for an investigation into how parts of his wealth declaration had been leaked to the press. Stefanos Kasselakis, cannot be a candidate in the party’s upcoming leadership battle. | Nick Paleologos/Getty Images Following Saturday’s vote, Kasselakis said he would confront his detractors next month at an extraordinary party congress set for Nov. 8-10 to take a final decision on Syriza’s leadership candidates. The first round of the contest will take place on Nov. 24, with a runoff set for Dec. 1 if necessary. In the Pasok party contest, incumbent leader Nikos Androulakis is facing off against Athens Mayor Haris Doukas. Androulakis currently holds a significant lead, with an eight-point advantage over Doukas. Whoever wins the leadership race will aim to capitalize on Syriza’s implosion and build on the attention generated by the elections. Pasok has already cemented second place in voter polls, while the looming splinter within Syriza means it could become the main opposition in the parliament as well if Syriza loses at least five MPs.