Yannis Pretenteris

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.