MacroPolis

The government has been forced to make changes to the bill aimed at regulating street demonstrations after objections were raised by Parliament’s scientific committee, not just opposition parties.

As primary schools welcomed pupils back after lockdown, teachers are taking to the streets to protest against a major education bill tabled by the New Democracy government.

New Democracy’s environmental bill passed this week with all 158 votes from the governing majority, after a stormy debate in parliament and a last-minute mobilisation by environmental and civil society groups.

Greek parliamentarians are preparing to return to business this week, with a number of non-pandemic items on the agenda. The return to political normality looks set to rekindle confrontations on several fronts which have been temporarily suppressed in the interest of the national emergency.

The government is trying to avoid tying itself up in knots after coming under attack from all sides on Wednesday, when it passed an amendment that ensures two football clubs from northern Greece will not be relegated despite an independent commission recommending that they be expelled from the Super League.

Senior judge Katerina Sakellaropoulou was elected Greece new, and first female, president on Wednesday by the vast majority of the country’s MPs, vindicating Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s choice, but also justifying SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras’s decision to support her candidacy.

Wednesday night’s budget vote is likely to wrap up the conservative government’s economic business for the year, although there is some speculation that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis might try to squeeze in some more handouts before 2019 is over.

Away from the diplomatic tension with Turkey, the 2020 budget and other economic issues are top of the government’s agenda this week.

The government lost its first member on Thursday although the resignation was somewhat obscured by the focus on foreign policy issues after the meeting between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the sidelines of the NATO summit in the UK on Wednesday.

There has been persistent speculation in Greece over the last few weeks about possible snap elections next year, although the government has denied this is a possibility.