Yannis Pretenteris

It’s strange. The world is in flames from the Middle East to Ukraine, and here in Europe we’ll be voting for the new European Parliament in a few weeks’ time, and yet we’re not really focused on the world or even on Europe. No, we’re only interested in the election candidates. And this when previous […]

We’re not in the home straight yet, but they’re not a dot on the horizon anymore. This June’s European elections will bring to a close the cycle of electoral showdowns that began a year ago, in May 2023. The polls record dissatisfaction with the New Democracy government, with the main chaffing point being the cost […]

A police force that does not protect those who seek its protection. An officer who doesn’t even watch over the pavement beside the police station he’s charged with guarding. A Rapid Response unit that isn’t rapid and whose responsiveness is questionable at best. Police officers who respond to a young girl’s cry for help in […]

The government’s “hell week” ended, as expected, with it comfortably winning a vote of confidence, in what turned out to be a far from edifying parliamentary showdown. In the meantime, of course, the government lost two ministers for reasons that are probably unrelated to the opposition’s lack of confidence. It is possible that their loss […]

Democratic societies face a choice. As far as dilemmas go, it’s extremely straightforward: they can either have confidence in the justice they provide, or they can’t. If a society trusts its justice system, it doesn’t cast doubts on it over trifles. It doesn’t restrict its purview, either, or casually level accusations about cover-ups or transactions. […]

Is the specter of the Far Right hanging over Greece? Well, no–what we need is a little perspective. The political wing of the Far Right may be making advances in parts of Europe (Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Spain or Italy). But in Greece it remains fragmented and disreputable, consigned to the lunatic fringe. It might […]

I’m afraid this business with the Church being all sulky with the State over a matter of state could end up being even more of a joke than the “popular gatherings” over identity cards 25 years ago. For one simple reason: State and Church neither co-govern, nor work together. The Church can have an opinion […]

Nine months after the elections, the government finds itself facing a new and different opposition

A party is falling apart in plain view, broadcast live to the world. For the simplest reason possible: it’s no longer clear what purpose it serves. What is today’s SYRIZA, the party Tsipras handed over to Kasselakis? What are its aspirations, its vision? What sort of a party is it and what are its prospects? […]

I won’t beat about the bush, because this is no time for baseless reassurances: terrorism is knocking at our door again. A new terrorism perhaps, twenty years after the old one was dismantled. I don’t know if the new crop are really “Koufodinas’ grandchildren.” But we’re definitely faced with the same old bloodthirsty logic that […]

The farmers have forced themselves onto an agenda already fraught with two explosive issues: private universities and same-sex couples

If education reflects a country’s cultural level, I severely doubt ours scrapes a pass. The depressing images of thugs in hoods with clubs, the layabouts passing themselves off as a poor man’s “student movement”, the mindless sound-bites regurgitated ad nauseam for the cameras by various “militant squatters” all bear witness to a mess that can […]

In Germany, Erdoğan's visit on November 17th caused a kerfuffle.