Politics of Greece
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Politics of Greece |
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The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Constitution of Greece, which describes Greece as a "presidential parliamentary republic", includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in a president elected by parliament. 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. Voting in Greece is officially compulsory, but this is not enforced.[1]
Executive branch
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.
President
The President of the Republic is elected by the Parliament for a five-year term (election last held 22 January 2020), and a maximum of two terms in office. When a presidential term expires, Parliament votes to elect the new president. In the first two votes, a 2⁄3 majority (200 votes) is necessary. The third and final vote requires a 3⁄5 (180 votes) majority.
If the third vote is fruitless, Parliament is dissolved and elections are proclaimed by the outgoing President within the next 30 days. In the new Parliament, the election for president is repeated immediately with a 3⁄5 majority required for the initial vote, an absolute majority for the second one (151 votes) and a simple majority for the third and final one. The system is so designed as to promote consensus presidential candidates among the main political parties.
The president has the power to
The president can also exercise certain emergency powers, which must be countersigned by the appropriate cabinet minister. The president may not dissolve parliament, dismiss the government, suspend certain articles of the constitution, issue a proclamation or declare a state of siege without countersigning by the prime minister or the appropriate cabinet minister. To call a referendum, they must obtain approval from parliament. They can appoint ministers after they are recommended by the Prime Minister. Although not official, the president of Greece is usually from the main opposition party so that the government and opposition can agree and not host elections. Sometimes they are chosen from outside the political ranks. Currently, the president of Greece is Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the eighth and first female President of Greece since the restoration of democracy in 1974.
Prime minister
The prime minister is elected by the Parliament and is usually the leader of the party controlling the absolute majority of MPs. According to the Constitution, the prime minister safeguards the unity of the government and directs its activities. 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. Although officially just head of Government, not of state, they conduct professional business and the President is just the Supreme Executive.
Maintaining the support of parliament
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.
An administration may at any time seek a "vote of confidence". Conversely a number of members of parliament may ask that a "vote of reproach" be taken. Both are rare occurrences with usually predictable outcomes as voting outside the party line happens very seldom.
Legislative branch
Greece elects a legislature by universal suffrage of all citizens over the age of 17 (changed in 2018). The
Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and makes a parliamentary majority possible even if the leading party falls short of a majority of the popular vote. 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 largest party gets a 50-seat bonus (out of 300 seats) ostensibly to ensure elections return viable governing majorities. Various times throughout the years, the system has been changed, and parties often fall short of the 151 seats required to have a majority, so they create coalition.
The law in its current form favors the
Judicial branch
In Greece the judicial branch is divided into civil, and administrative courts. Civil courts judge civil and penal cases, whereas administrative courts judge administrative cases, namely disputes between the citizens and the State.
The judicial system of Greece comprises three Supreme Courts: the
The
Sometimes, the Supreme Courts take contradictory decisions or they judge differently the constitutionality of a legal provision. These disputes are resolved by the
When it judges the constitutionality of a law or resolves the disputes between Supreme Courts, its composition comprises two more members: two professors of the Law Schools of Greece. The Supreme Special Court is the only court which can declare an unconstitutional legal provision as "powerless" (something like "null and void"), while the three Supreme Courts can only declare an unconstitutional legal provision as "inapplicable" to that particular case. The Supreme Special Court is also the Supreme Electoral Court, judging pleas against the legality of the legislative elections.
Administrative divisions
Greece is divided into
Greece's 74 regional units are divided into 325 municipalities (Δήμοι, Dhími) which are led by a popularly elected mayor (Δήμαρχος, Dhímarhos) and municipal council (Δημοτικό Συμβούλιο, Dhimotikó Simvoúlio). Each municipality is divided into small municipal units (Δημοτικές Ενότητες, Dhimotikés Enótites) which in turn contain municipal communities (relatively urban communities) and local communities (relatively rural communities). Municipal councils select community members to serve on more local town hall councils which focus on local needs in the municipality's communities and give local feedback to the municipal government.
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. Consequently, they are subject to numerous central government controls. This also leads to extremely low municipal taxes (usually around 0.2% or less).
Greece also includes one autonomous region, the monastic community of the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos.
Foreign relations
As one of the first Euro-Atlantic member states in the region of Southeast Europe, Greece enjoys a prominent geopolitical role, due to its political and geographical proximity to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Its main allies are France, United Kingdom, Italy, Bulgaria, United States, the other NATO countries and the European Union.
Greece also maintains strong diplomatic relations with Cyprus, Albania, Russia, Serbia, Armenia and Israel, while at the same time focuses at improving further the good relations with Egypt and the
Prominent issues in Hellenic foreign policy include the
Notable politicians of Greece
Former
Current
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Political issues
Education
Under the Greek constitution,[2] education is the responsibility of the state. Most Greeks attend public primary and secondary schools. There are a few private schools, which must meet the standard curriculum of and are supervised by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education oversees and directs every aspect of the public education process at all levels, including hiring all teachers and professors and producing all required textbooks.
Non-state owned universities
A recent issue concerning education in Greece is the institutionalisation of private universities. According to the constitution
At the outset of 2006, prime minister Kostas Karamanlis announced the initiative of his government for a new amendment of the Constitution. According to his assertion one of the main issues of this amendment (the second within less than 10 years) is going to be the creation of "non-state owned" universities.
Illegal immigration
Greece has problems with illegal immigration, especially from or via Turkey. 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.[4][5]
Several European courts have held that Greece is not complying with minimum standards of treatment for asylum seekers, so that illegal migrants who reach other countries cannot be sent back to Greece.[6]
Numerous solutions have been proposed by the Greek government such as building a fence on the Turkish border and setting up detention camps.[7][8]
Judicial system
One of the main problems of the system is the long-time process needed, even for a simple case, something that negatively impacts investment, entrepreneurship, social relations, corporate governance, and public governance.
Manipulation of the judicial system and its decisions by each government, is another common phenomenon which violates the independency of the system.
Prisons
There are three prison types in Greece: general, special, and therapeutic prisons. General prisons include three different types of inmates: type A, type B, and type C. Special prisons include rural units, juvenile institutions, and semi-liberty centers. One example of a special prison would be an agricultural prison. The last type is a therapeutic prison, which includes hospitals and rehab centers for inmates.[12]
Within these centers the percentage of female prisoners is 5.5%, which amounts to around 538 prisoners. The percentage of juveniles in Greek prison is 2.9%. Greece's occupancy rate in prisons is 99%, which means that its prisons are near full capacity. With some exceptions occupancy exceeds 100%, and in some establishments, it reaches, or surpasses, 300%.[12] Because of this the Greek Justice Ministry and the European Council want to improve Greek prison conditions. These improvements include training for guards, improving of medical facilities, and better treatment of prisoners. These selected improvements are three human rights that the Greek correctional system would like to tackle.
Media
The Greek media, collectively, is a very influential institution – usually aggressive, sensationalist. As with many countries, most of the media are owned by businesses with commercial interests in other sectors of the economy. There are often accusations of newspapers, magazines, and radio and television channels being used to promote their commercial enterprises as well as to seek political influence.
In 1994, the
The Secretary General of Press and Information prepares the semi-official Athens News Agency (ANA) Bulletin. Along with AP and Reuters, this is a primary source of information for the Greek press. The Ministry of Press and Information also issues the semi-official Macedonian News Agency (MPE) Bulletin, which is distributed throughout the Balkan region. For international news, CNN is a particular influence in the Greek market; the major television channels often use it as a source. State and private television stations also use Eurovision and Visnews as sources. While few papers and stations have overseas correspondents, those few correspondents abroad can be very influential.
In 1988, a new law provided the legal framework for the establishment of private radio stations and, in 1989, private television stations. According to the law, supervision of radio and television is exercised by the National Radio and Television Council. In practice, however, official licensing has been delayed for many years. Because of this, there has been a proliferation of private radio and television stations, as well as European satellite channels, including Euronews. 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.
Media freedom
In 2011, the government proposed new measures that will restrict the freedom of speech in the internet. According to some proposals, every individual who would like to use free platforms, such like
Petsas's List
Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis allocated €19,832,132.94 to media and press. After pressure from the opposition, Stylianos Petsas, then government representative, published the list. Less than 1% of the 20 million euros of the campaign was given to the opposition press. According to OGG 475BB/27-10-2020, a Second "Petsas's List" was announced, this time exclusively on nationwide free-to-air stations. This was followed by the vaccination campaign, amounting to 18,500,000 euros and the Plevris List with total amounts of 4,960,000 euros.
Military service
Twelve months for all males of 18 years of age; Compulsory with fines and imprisonment if denied, but neither fine nor imprisonment has been imposed since 1994, where the last warrant against a draft-dodger was issued. Members of families with three children serve a reduced time of six months. Military service can also be substituted with a longer public service, which by the standards of Amnesty International, ought to be considered punitive as it is twice as long as the regular tour of duty.
Limited steps have been taken to turn the Greek military into a semi-
Military spending
Greece directs approximately 1.7% of its GDP to military expenditures, the 7th highest percentage in Europe.[18] In absolute numbers the Greek military budget ranked 28th in the world in 2005. By the same measure, Greek military budget ranked 6th in the Mediterranean basin (behind France, Italy, Turkey, Israel and Spain) and 2nd (behind Turkey) in its immediate vicinity, the Balkans.[19] Greek arms purchasing is among the highest in the world: Greece ranked 3rd in the world in 2004.[20]
These figures are explained
The reduction of military spending has long been an issue in Greek politics. The former prime minister,
Some of the parties on the left, such as the
Church-state relations
The Greek Orthodox Church is under the protection of the State, which pays the clergy's salaries, and Orthodox Christianity is the "'prevailing" religion of Greece according to the Constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. Freedom of religious beliefs is guaranteed by the Constitution, but "proselytism" is officially illegal. According to the most recent Eurostat "Eurobarometer" poll, in 2005,[27] 81% of Greek citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 16% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and only 3% that "they do not believe there is a God, spirit, nor life force". This would make Greece one of the most religious countries in the European Union of 25 members, after Malta and Cyprus.
The Muslim minority, concentrated in
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. For example, numerous protests occurred over the removal of the Religious Denomination entry from the National ID card in 2000.
Since 2015
More left-wing Syriza overtook PASOK as the main party of the centre-left.[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. Syriza gained support by opposing the austerity policy that had affected Greeks since the beginning of the Greek government-debt crisis.[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.[33] However, he was defeated in the July 2019 general election by Kyriakos Mitsotakis who leads New Democracy.[34] On 7 July 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Greece. He formed a centre-right government after the landslide victory of his New Democracy party.[35]
In March 2020, Greece's parliament elected a non-partisan candidate,
According to the
In 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. [39]
Notes
- ^ "Compulsory Voting". International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Article 16 of the Constitution of Greece.
- ^ Article 16 of the Constitution of Greece, Section 5: "Education at university level shall be provided exclusively by institutions which are fully self-governed public law legal persons".
- ^ "Tensions Rise Over Illegal Immigrants in Greece". NPR. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
- ^ "Southern Europe's Immigration Test". Time. 18 February 2010. Archived from the original on 21 February 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
- Ekathimerini. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
- ^ "Greece to Build Border Fence to Deter Illegal Immigrants". The New York Times. 6 February 2012. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
- ^ Smith, Helena (29 March 2012). "Greece to open new detention centres for illegal migrants". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
- ^ The Greek judicial system in critical condition
- ^ "The Greek Legal Crisis & Reform Of The Greek Legal System". Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ^ Πρεμιέρα της δίκης του παραδικαστικού
- ^ a b "Prison conditions in Greece". European Prison Observatory. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Ανωνυμία, ψευδωνυμία και επωνυμία στο διαδίκτυο – Η Αυγή online". Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
- ^ Van Der Heijden, Thomas (28 November 2014). "Media landscape in Greece must reform quickly". Euroscope. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ^ Petros Iosifidis and Dimitris Boucas, "Media Policy and Independent Journalism in Greece" (PDF), Open Society Foundations report, 1 May 2015.
- ^ "Greece". RSF. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
- ^ "Greece Suicide Rate 2000-2023". Macrotrends. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ Military Spending – Rank Order, Military expenditure Archived 20 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine (2012 figures)
- ^ All rankings according to the World ranking of military budgets Archived 1 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Article from in.gr (08/06/05) (in Greek)
- ^ "US Arms Clients Profiles – Greece". Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
- ^ US Arms Clients Profiles – Greece Archived 19 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine: "The Greek publication Elevtherotipia reported that former Ambassador Nicholas Burns had taken part in attempting to dissuade Greek officials from purchasing the Eurofighter in favor of a U.S. military aircraft."
- ^ Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in Greek, 03-09-13[permanent dead link]
- ^ Athens News Agency: Press Review in Greek, 01-11-15
- ^ "Speech of PASOK former finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis". Archived from the original on 11 August 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
- ^ HR-NET index of BBC broadcasts in Greek, 05-07-19 News
- ISBN 9781137588418.
- ^ "Greece election: Anti-austerity Syriza wins election". BBC News. 26 January 2015.
- ^ Wearden, Graeme; Tran, Mark (26 January 2015). "Alexis Tsipras sworn in as new Greek prime minister – as it happened". The Guardian.
- ^ "Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou became Greece's first female Prime Minister | Economy Watch". Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ "Greece election: Alexis Tsipras hails 'victory of the people'". BBC News. 21 September 2015.
- ^ "Greek Finance Minister Tsakalotos takes key role in Tsipras' new cabinet | DW | 23.09.2015". Deutsche Welle.
- TheGuardian.com. 7 July 2019.
- ^ "New era as Mitsotakis is sworn in as Greece's new PM".
- ^ "Greece swears in first female president".
- ^ "New Democracy party wins landslide victory in Greek elections". www.aljazeera.com.
- ^ V-Dem Institute (2023). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 14 October 2023.
- ^ MEPs voice alarm over rule-of-law decline in Greece, demand closer oversight of EU funds. (2024, February 7). Euronews. [1]
External links
- Greek Politics Specialist Group (GPSG) of the UK's Political Studies Association
- Official election results, via the Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs
- ekloges.gr, Greek elections
- Official website of the Prime Minister of Greece
- Greece the first country in the globe in terms of student export
- Greek politics community forums
- Greece and eurozone in crisis, dossier by Radio France Internationale in English June 2010