Politics of Greece

The Greek governmental structure is similar to that found in many other Western democracies, and has been described as a compromise between the French and German models.

The prime minister and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the president performs some executive and legislative functions in addition to ceremonial duties.

[1] The Cabinet of Greece, which is the main organ of the government, includes the heads of all executive ministries, appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Although officially holding the second highest rank as head of the Hellenic government and not the Republic, they are the most powerful person of the Greek political system and recommends ministers to the President for appointment or dismissal.

Greek parliamentary politics hinge upon the principle of the "δεδηλωμένη" (pronounced "dhedhilomeni"), the "declared confidence" of Parliament to the Prime Minister and his/her administration.

This means that the president of the Republic is bound to appoint, as prime minister, a person who will be approved by a majority of the Parliament's members (i.e. 151 votes).

With the current electoral system, it is the leader of the party gaining a plurality of the votes in the Parliamentary elections who is appointed prime minister.

Under the current electoral law, any single party must receive at least a 3% nationwide vote tally to elect members of parliament (the so-called "3% threshold").

The law in its current form favors the first past the post party to achieve an absolute (151 parliamentary seats) majority, provided it receives a 41%+ nationwide vote.

The Chamber of Accounts has an exclusive jurisdiction over certain administrative areas (for example it judges disputes arising from the legislation regulating the pensions of civil servants) and its decisions are irrevocable.

Although municipalities and villages have elected officials, they often do not have an adequate independent revenue base and must depend on the central government budget for a large part of their financial needs.

Prominent issues in Hellenic foreign policy include the claims in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean by Turkey and the Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

Greek authorities believe that 90% of illegal immigrants in the EU enter through Greece, many fleeing because of unrest and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

The Ministry of Press and Information also issues the semi-official Macedonian News Agency (MPE) Bulletin, which is distributed throughout the Balkan region.

More than 1,000 radio stations were operating before March 2002, when the government implemented plans to reallocate television frequencies and issue licenses as authorized by the 1993 Media Law, effectively reducing this number.

According to some proposals, every individual who would like to use free platforms, such like Blogspot or WordPress.com will be forced to get officially registered in the courts, as due to tough austerity measures web sites that criticize the government and the political system in general have been multiplied.

[20] These figures are explained[21] in the light of the arms race between Greece and Turkey with key issues being the Cyprus dispute and disagreement over sovereignty of certain islets of the Aegean.

The United States, being the major arms seller to Greece has been known to actively intervene in military spending decisions made by the Greek government.

The recent influx of (mostly illegal) immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Third World has an expectedly varied multi-religious profile (Roman Catholic, Muslim, Hindu etc.).

During the 2001 constitutional amendment, complete separation of church and state was proposed, but the two major parties, ND and PASOK, decided not to open this controversial matter, which clashes with both the population and the clergy.

[28]Alexis Tsipras led Syriza to victory in the general election held on 25 January 2015, falling short of an outright majority in Parliament by just two seats.

[29] The following morning, Tsipras reached an agreement with Independent Greeks party to form a coalition, and he was sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece.

[30] Tsipras called snap elections in August 2015, resigning from his post, which led to a month-long caretaker administration headed by judge Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, Greece's first female prime minister.

[31] In the September 2015 general election, Alexis Tsipras led Syriza to another victory, winning 145 out of 300 seats[32] and re-forming the coalition with the Independent Greeks.

[36] In June 2023, conservative New Democracy party won the legislative election, meaning another four-year term as prime minister for Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

[38] On February 7, Members of the European Parliament approved a critical resolution about the "worrying" decline of the rule of law in Greece, pointing the finger at Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The non-binding text details a string of concerns about the current state of Greek democracy, including harassment of journalists, privacy violations, wiretapping of political opponents, excessive use of police force, conflicts of interests, alleged corruption, smear campaigns against civil society and the "systematic" pushbacks of migrants.

Thus, Greece is the lowest-ranking EU country in the World Press Freedom Index curated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), with an abysmal score of 55.2 points, considerably worse than Hungary (62.96), Bulgaria (62.98) and Poland (67.66).

One of the reasons behind the ranking is the 2022 scandal known as Predatorgate, where cabinet members, political opponents and journalists were subject to prolonged surveillance.

The scandal exposed Mitsotakis, who personally controls the Greek National Intelligence Service, to international censure but failed to dampen his electoral standing.