New Democracy News

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Sunday dismissed talk of an early election over the abrupt closure of the state broadcaster, which brought protests from viewers, workers, the opposition and his coalition partners.

New Democracy is 2 percent ahead of SYRIZA, according to the latest Public Issue opinion poll for Kathimerini and Skai.

Employees secure a protest banner at the headquarters of the Greek public broadcaster ERT on June 13, 2013 in Athens.

The Greek government has abruptly shut down the country's public broadcaster, ERT, and will lay off most of its staff of more than 2,600 people.

New Democracy's coalition partners made a bid on Wednesday to halt plans for public broadcaster ERT to be shut down and be replaced with a leaner version in a few months time.

It took less than five minutes for both Panagiotis Kostas and his wife, Olga Psaridou, to lose their jobs.

Journalists from ERT, the public broadcaster that the government unexpectedly shut down on Tuesday, continued to put programs on air on Wednesday via digital frequencies and the Internet in a show of defiance against the decision.

Mainstream Greek political parties have been "laundering" the anti-Semitic pasts of MPs, Greek-Israeli financier Sabby Mionis said in an interview with on Tuesday.

The government is condemned to complete its four-year term. This is not for reasons of national interest, as some commentators like to claim, but because, given the current power balance, itA's very unlikely that the three-party coalition would survive a snap election.

The Greek foreign minister told an American Jewish audience that his government would "never allow hate to grow and spread," but did not address specific calls to marginalize the ultranationalist Golden Dawn party.

A new row has broken out between the government and SYRIZA after leftist leader Alexis Tsipras repeated his accusations that New Democracy is following far-right Golden DawnA's agenda as GreeceA's privatization agency denied it had plans to sell a site containing an important Second World War and Civil War memorial.

Expecting a state that has failed to enforce a smoking ban in public places to penalize hate speech is wishful thinking.

The coalition government was locked in a fresh dispute on Tuesday when PASOK and Democratic Left refused to allow a bill allowing some households to repay their bank loans over longer periods to be rushed through Parliament as Prime Minister Antonis SamarasA's New Democracy had wanted.

Justice Minister Antonis Roupakiotis, who last month introduced a draft law foreseeing stiffer penalties for racially motivated crimes that has strained the unity of GreeceA's coalition government, suggested on Monday that a compromise solution is likely.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his conservative New Democracy party have dropped their opposition to a new anti-racism bill that outlaws Holocaust denial.

MEP Theodoros Skylakakis was voted the new president of the Drasi pro-business party on Saturday.

Deputy Interior Minister Haralambos Athanassiou said on Friday that a revised version of a citizenship bill for migrants has been given to the leaders of the three parties in the governing coalition, New Democracy, PASOK and Democratic Left .

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the Greek government to adopt new measures to curb racially-motivated crimes and protect victims of hate attacks.

The World Jewish Congress joined the Greek Jewish community in urging the Greek government to implement an anti-racism bill in the face of rising hate crimes.

The anti-racism bill that has been the source of a serious dispute within the three-party government, will continue to cause friction over the next few days as PASOK and Democratic Left prepare to submit the draft law to Parliament despite the objections of New Democracy, which is going to attempt to block the legislation once it reaches the House.