Yannis Pretenteris

The best response to an unstable and treacherous environment, and the clearest affirmation of a principled policy based on law, is results. Especially when they validate the principles and law that inform it.

No logical person can understand why Erdogan has started a new round of turbulence in Turkey by targeting the mayor of Istanbul. In what was (otherwise) a positive and significantly less tense situation for the Turkish president. His regime seemed to have stabilised and he wasn’t under pressure. The economy had largely levelled out, albeit […]

With the political and constitutional certainty that Greek Democracy has consistently proved its resilience in the face of pretenders, events, and the emotional responses they elicit. It has shown it will not succumb to opportunists.

For its part, though the government ultimately emerged unscathed from the parliamentary process, it was almost blindsided by an issue it had considered long since over and done with.

It’s time to pass the baton on to the Greek Parliament and, of course, the judiciary, which has been investigating the incident for two years.

The US-Russia rapprochement with the meeting in Saudi Arabia and the emerging developments concerning Ukraine pose a big question for the European Union. What do we do now? The choices aren’t infinite. Europe has welcomed the developments from a position of embarrassed weakness. NATO may have been enlarged with Sweden and Finland, but it’s clearly […]

We can’t complain. The new American President has hardly been in the White House a month and he’s already turned the world on its head

It’s no coincidence that every democracy in the world is currently focused, each in its own way, on a right which life has elevated into a requirement

In civilized societies, justice is dispensed by judges and the courts. No one else. Not by governments or oppositions. Not by parties or ministers. Not by protesters or viewers. Not by relatives and friends. Even when it’s political figures being judged, it’s the judiciary that ultimately passes sentence. Parliament simply conducts the preliminary inquiry. Which […]

So Trump is a large slice of America. A part that was there before he appeared on the scene and will remain after he has gone.  

In a strange and unexpected way, the vote for the President of Greece has turned into a prelude to the next parliamentary elections. Especially since the Prime Minister made it clear publicly that he will be seeking a third term in office, and without any change to the electoral law. Meaning that the situation calls […]

And for me, the funeral service represented another element of normality. The President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition shared an appreciation of the deceased and his contribution.

As we took out leave of 2024, we also bade farewell to a drawn-out election cycle. Four elections between May 2023 and June 2024. With no change to the overall picture. New Democracy (ND) won all four, consolidating a supremacy that now leads it smoothly into its sixth year in government. Only the ND of […]

If some thought the Greeks’ system of values had been left in disarray by the Crisis years, they’ll have to accept that, even if it once were, everything is now largely as it was before.

The government may not have changed in Greece in 2024. But the Opposition did change. And I don't think that's ever happened before.

I listened carefully to all the politicians, functionaries and academics who spoke at the conference on foreign policy co-organised by To Vima, the Delphi Economic Forum and the Council for International Relations (at the King George Hotel, December 12-13). And I’ll let you in on a secret. There didn’t seem to be much of significance […]

A (literally) unprecedented alliance of the Far Right and the Left has left France all at sea today, without a government or a budget.

The completion of the election process for the President of SYRIZA and the formalization of the foundation of Kasselakis’ new party brings to a close the cycle of party political realignments that began the day after the European elections. Party political, but not necessarily political. Because new formations and new faces (even if they’ve been […]

It has been a thousand and one days since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the conflict seems to have reached a critical turning point. Not necessarily on the field of battle. There, the war has evolved into a sequence of small victories and minor defeats for both sides. With no clear winners or losers. The Russians […]

The old political landscape is no more, but a new landscape has yet to take its place