Free Republic

Lambert here: Helmer sheds some light on this extraordinary tweet by global thinker, Bullingdon Club member, AEI fellow, former Minister of Defense of Poland, and Blob spouse Radek Sikorski: Thanks for what? Helmer explains. By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish...

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will resign after the makeup of the nation's new coalition government is decided, officials said Sunday. Sunday's Cabinet meeting will be the last with Papandreou as prime minister, a government spokesman said in a statement. The meeting will focus on issues relating to Monday's Euro group meeting, at which Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will represent Greece, the statement said. A spokesman for Papandreou's Socialist PASOK party said the prime minister will resign after the government is announced. Venizelos is likely to remain in his post as finance minister in a new government, sources told Greek...

The dismissal of Greece’s top military chiefs has the opposition up in arms. With the Greek crisis worsening by the day, PM George Papandreou has been accused of trying to rein in the armed forces before a potential government collapse. ­ Sweeping changes to Greece’s military leadership were approved by Prime Minister George Papandreou during a meeting of the Foreign and Defense Council in Athens today. The Chief of National Defense, as well as the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, were all replaced, according to a statement released by the Greek Defense Ministry Wednesday. In addition, a...

Prime Minister George Papandreou will press forward with a referendum on the European Union's financing package and will win a vote of confidence, reports Bloomberg. "We’re not retreating and we haven’t retreated... http://www.breakingeconomics.com/2011/11/papandreou-will-press-on-with.html

“As the coming week is particularly critical for the implementation of the July 21 decisions in the euro area and the initiatives which the country must undertake, Prime Minister George Papandreou decided to cancel his scheduled visit to the US,” his office said last night. Greece is under pressure to fulfill commitments made to its European Union partners in return for another tranche of funding to prevent default. The surprise move came after heightened tensions between Europe and the US atf a two-day meeting of EU finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland. Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, defended...

Debt Crises: What a sorry spectacle to watch Greeks rioting in the streets in reaction to austerity measures. As if tantrums can change reality. It's Exhibit A of how socialism infantilizes citizens. The only cure is free markets. As Greece's legislature heads for a vote Wednesday to cut the size of its government by $40 billion in exchange for the last $17 billion of a $156 billion International Monetary Fund bailout on July 3, the world's television screens are flooded with images of young "indignantes" calling a riotous 48 hour-strike in Athens. Steeped in socialism for decades, these Greeks see...

At first blush, Greece’s prime minister George Papandreou statement that he is looking into litigation against banks that worsened the country’s financial woes sounds like pandering to his electorate. Papandreou said the decision on whether to go after U.S. banks will be made after a Greek parliamentary investigation into the cause of the crisis. “Greece will look into the past and see how things went,” Papandreou said. “There are similar investigations going on in other countries and in the United States. This is where I think, yes, the financial sector, I hear the words fraud and lack of transparency. So...

Chance meeting in Moscow restaurant between Greek, Israelis prime ministers dedicated mainly to economic issues, but Netanyahu takes opportunity to strengthen central message: Nuclear arms race underway in Middle East that includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt After his meeting with Russian president, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly bumped into Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou Monday in a Moscow restaurant and took the opportunity to continue on the objective of his Russia trip – to warn against the Iranian nuclear threat. One of the threats to world peace out of a number of existing threats of the military nuclearization of Iran...

Socialism: If you don't think heavy regulation, elephantine bureaucracies, union rule and runaway spending amount to poison for an economy, take a gander at what decades of such socialist policies have done to Greece. Last week, the tiny Balkan state seemed like a blazing house threatening to set the rest of its European Union neighborhood on fire. It started when Greece earned the first of two sovereign downgrades from ratings agency Fitch over its $436 billion budget deficit. Then Standard & Poor's cut Greece to BBB+ from A- and sternly warned that if the government didn't get serious about controlling...

ATHENS -- Greece's opposition Socialists won national elections on Sunday as voters rejected the incumbent center-right party that had been tarred by scandals and unpopular economic policies during its five and a half years in office. George Papandreou, leader of the winning Socialist party, Pasok, told supporters, "We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country." Pasok, the Socialist party, secured 43.9% of the vote in early official results, translating to 160 seats in Greece's 300-member parliament. Under Greece's reinforced proportional-representation system, the party with the largest number of votes is awarded seats based on overall results...

The main opposition Socialists will easily win Greece's parliamentary election on Sunday, as voters angered by a faltering economy and a string of corruption scandals turned against Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis' governing conservatives, exit polls indicated. Initial nationwide results, with just over 8 percent of the vote counted, gave the Socialists 43.3 percent and the conservatives 36.2 percent, while turnout was at 67 percent. Led by former Foreign Minister George Papandreou, 57, the Socialists will gain 41-44 percent of the vote, according to exit polls for Greek TV stations. If the projection is confirmed, the Socialists would be able to...

Socialist International President George Papandreou has a lot in common with President Barack Obama. Both the world leaders have called for nations to come together to solve the global recession and both claim it is necessary to focus on a green economy. Papandreou, who is likely to become Greece’s next Prime Minister, was encouraged by Obama’s “very new signal” about global goals for economic recovery. “The United States under Barack Obama is giving out a very new signal which is, ‘We need to collaborate.’ And I think that is very important for our planet today. We need to collaborate,” Papandreou...

In a VOA interview, opposition leader George Papandreou deplored the violence. "The types of problem, which Greece is facing right now are such that one could have expected that there would be a reaction from society and particularly from the youth," said George Papandreou. "Obviously what we are all shocked about is the violence, the extent of violence - but the fact there is a deeper crisis where the youth feel a deepening sense of inequality, social inequalities, lack of possible employment, a sense of injustice - a sense of corruption at the highest levels of government - these things...

ATHENS, Greece - On election day, the Papandreou name failed to work its old magic. Now, Greece's best-known political dynasty could face extinction after a half-century's affair with power. Shocked out of their usual voting patterns by the summer's unprecedented wildfires, Greeks dealt a blow to both major parties on Sunday, switching support to smaller groups. But the socialists fared by far the worst, clocking their poorest result in 30 years, while the conservatives were narrowly re-elected. George Papandreou — who heads the PASOK party founded by his late father, the anti-U.S. firebrand Andreas Papandreou — had barely finished his...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's ruling conservatives appeared headed on Sunday for a narrow election victory that may complicate economic reform efforts after a campaign overshadowed by deadly forest fires and scandals. Early official results, which had yet to reflect voting in large urban areas, showed the conservative New Democracy winning about 45 percent of the ballots. Exit polls earlier showed the ruling party winning a thin parliamentary majority that may make it hard for it to tackle the difficult reforms aimed at bringing the euro zone's second poorest member in line with its partners. Conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and...

Greek Conservatives Win Parliament Elections By Brian Murphy Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 7, 2004 ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greek conservatives swept to a landslide victory Sunday in parliamentary elections that ended 10 years of Socialist government and assigned a new caretaker to the troubled preparations for this summer's Olympics. With 56 percent of votes counted, the New Democracy party was beating the Socialists 47 percent to 41 percent as part of a deep reshuffling of Greece's political order. Socialist leader George Papandreou conceded defeat after various exit polls showed New Democracy with a strong lead. The conservatives, led by...

Exit Poll: Conservatives Set to Win Greek Election 26 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek conservatives were poised to easily win a general election Sunday returning to power after 11 years of socialist rule, first exit polls showed. Reuters Photo Greece Votes In Landmark Election (Reuters Video) A poll by privately-run Alter Television, released minutes after voting ended, forecast conservative leader Costas Karamanlis' New Democracy Party winning 44.5 to 47 percent of the vote, ahead of the incumbent PASOK socialists of George Papandreou with 38.5 to 41 percent.