International

Perish the thought that Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis was recording the conversation in which he threatened Greece’s central banker.

The violation of the confidentiality of telephone communications without the consent of all the parties is a felony, punishable with a maximum ten-year jail term.

'The unheard of effort of Minister Pavlos Polakis to influence the administration of the Bank of Greece and me personally regarding how we carry out our duties constitutes a flagrant institutional aberration.'

It is at the very least odd that Kotzias, who resigned over his clash with Kammenos, has filed a slander suit while at the same time he steadfastly refuses to make public his nine-page resignation letter.

In the recorded conversation, Polakis demands that Stournaras also probe the loans of political parties and of other politicians.

Extreme right-wing Chrysi Avgi places third with 8.6 percent followed by the Movement for Change (7.9 percent), and the Greek Communist Party (6.7 percent).

Kotzias accuses Kammenos of masterminding and engaging in verbal abuse, slander, threats, and the dissemination of false news against the government.

Parties are created and then dissolved in a flash, MPs transfer between parties as football players do with teams, and political forces nonchalantly veer off course.

The Constitution must not be amended to serve fleeting political objectives, but rather to establish the framework for a functional democracy over the long haul.

The change was vehemently opposed by both the Orthodox Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has dozens of dioceses in Greece under its jurisdiction.

The elements of the protection from foreclosure that must be finalised are the maximum tax value of the property, the income of the borrower, and the maximum value of the remaining part of the loan.

SYRIZA ministers and cadres may have studied abroad and sent their children to private schools, but the establishment of non-state universities remains taboo.

The focus of the dispute was the proposed change of the procedure for electing the President of the Republic in Parliament.

Skopje and Athens in a joint letter yesterday informed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the Prespa Agreement has come into effect.

Polarisation, the decadent phenomena of MPs switching parties, and the general climate of suspicion may once again lead to a deficient and ineffective constitutional revision.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is attempting to divert attention from the highly unpopular Prespa Agreement to other issues, such as the planned revision of the Greek Constitution and a shift to thecentre-left.

In a singular display of legerdemain, the clergy (estimated at about 10,000 priests) will still be paid by the Unified Payments Authority just like all civil servants, but they will not be counted as civil servants.

It appears that this government does not view anticipating possible problems and acting responsibly as part of its duties.

Initially, the government’s proposal was to protect primary residences with a 250,000-euro tax value ceiling. That ceiling has now been lowered to between 120,000 and 140,000 euros.