International

On the day of Justice Sakellaropoulou’s election to the highest public office in the land the prime minister must have felt vindicated by the very positive reactions

Open attack about all the problems by Marinakis during the meeting of Greek Football’s ‘Big Four’ Football Clubs: Greek football federation is not fit for the task; multiownership of PAOK FC and Xanthi FC; VAR; role of the Chief Referee; referees used as tools in the manipulation of the championship. ‘This kind of football does not represent us’, Marinakis stressed.

The dialogue of Marinakis and Grammenos and the EPO’s president’s guilty silence over the Federation’s financial scandals.

'I look forward to a society that respects the rights described in the Constitution, the UN Charter of Fundamental Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights,' the president elect and Council of State chief justice said.

The US president remains undaunted and spoke of “perennial prophets of doom” at the Davos World Economic Conference, the focus of which is climate change.

Confronted with escalating Turkish provocations Greece must counter with an agreed upon, comprehensive national strategy. One must build new alliances that are based on strong foundations.

The Greek government has offered to send a peace-keeping force once the internecine conflict has ended. That would reportedly involve sending a ship to Libya to help manage the migrant crisis.

With no direct contact with the war zone Turkey invented maritime borders with part of war-torn Libya in order to dispute Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone, as defined by the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention.

The German tabloid Bild reported that German President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressured German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is hosting the Berlin Libya peace conference in cooperation with the UN to bar Greece from attending.

There is a common conviction that many problems would have been transcended if there was even a basic cooperation between political parties.

France issued its own separate statement backing Greece’s position that the Libya-Turkey accord is null and void.

The election of a woman was considered symbolic so that a male-dominated Greece could follow contemporary trends toward greater participation of women in public office and public affairs.

A distinguished jurist, Sakellaropoulou has the profile of a moderate progressive and thus is in line with the tradition of the PM picking a president from the other side of the aisle.

Can any US or EU involvement be effective and if not to what degree can Greece handle a protracted crisis with a hostile neighbour who has no compunction about making fresh demands at every opportunity?

President Trump praised Greece’s efforts to exit the crisis and the PM’s good work but when called upon to respond to the provocations of his “friend” Recep Tayyip Erdogan he acted as if he hadn’t heard.

In recognition of the great sacrifices of the Greek people, the country’s creditors should take a further step to assist in efforts to establish and expedite the path of economic growth.

While Trump was mocked in some international press outlets when he said he feels he personally knows all three million Greek-Americans – there are something under 1.5 million, with many wealthy supporters and major donors to his campaign

In contrast with the State Department Trump avoided any criticism of Turkey for its intervention in Libya or on the Libya-Turkey EEZ accord that expropriates large swathes of Greece’s EEZ.

Undoubtedly everyone is concerned, especially diplomats who feel that the efforts of many years are collapsing overnight with no planning or alternatives and without having worked out various scenarios.

Mitsotakis’ key argument in seeking clear and public US support for Athens (including the area of defence) is that Greece is the sole anchor of stability in a volatile region.