The Agora

Greece’s political landscape is shifting at remarkable speed. Alexis Tsipras’s new party, ELAS, has upended the opposition, destabilised SYRIZA, rattled PASOK, and pushed New Democracy into full campaign mode. With voters frustrated, trust low, and new actors entering the scene, the run‑up to the next elections is proving unusually volatile. In this episode, Nick Malkoutzis is joined by MacroPolis...

Greece says it is entering a new era of “brain regain”. Government programmes like Rebrain Greece are touring European capitals, employers are hiring, and the economy is finally growing again. But is the tide really turning? In this episode of The Agora, host Nick Malkoutzis digs into the data behind Greece’s talent flows, and finds a far more complicated picture. While official narratives highlig...

The war in Iran is sending economic and energy shockwaves far beyond the Middle East, and Greece is no exception. Rising oil and gas prices, renewed inflation pressures, and uncertainty in global energy markets are already shaping the country’s outlook. In this episode of The Agora, we break down how a conflict thousands of kilometres away is affecting Greece’s economy, energy security, and politi...

When a set of long‑lost photographs of the 1944 May Day executions of 200 Greeks by Nazi occupation forces suddenly surfaced on eBay in February, Greece was shaken. The images — the first ever to show the two hundred political prisoners, Communists, walking to their deaths at the Kaisariani shooting range in Athens — reopened a chapter of history that has never stopped shaping the country’s politi...

Greece is navigating one of its most complex geopolitical moments in years — from tensions stretching across Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, and Ukraine to the high‑stakes energy diplomacy of the Vertical Corridor. With pressure mounting on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Athens is working to balance alliances, protect its credibility, and seize new economic openings. In this episode, host Nick Ma...

Greece's 2026 budget was voted through Parliament on Tuesday, just ahead of the Christmas break. It contained some gifts for Greek taxpayers as it includes the tax cuts worth 1.2 billion euros that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had announced earlier in the year. But what else of note is in the budget? MacroPolis co-founder Yiannis Mouzakis joins host Nick Malkoutzis in The Agora to discuss th...

Greece is trying to secure a central role in the global energy game. In this episode of *The Agora*, we explore how a flurry of recent deals is positioning the country as a key player in the transatlantic energy landscape. From the launch of the Vertical Corridor - linking U.S. LNG to Ukraine via Greece - to offshore drilling in the Ionian Sea and the revival of the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI)...

Over the past year the United States has reset its trade stance through a series of executive tariff moves and a high profile EU–US framework that established a 15 percent baseline levy. In this episode we’ll trace how a headline tariff number translates into real costs for businesses in Greece and what broader implications there are for global trade. Our guest on The Agora is Jens Bastian, an ind...

Greece's new political season is underway and it promises to be full of twists and turns as the ruling New Democracy party tries to perform a course correction to get on track for a decisive third straight election victory. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis got the ball rolling this month by announcing a package of significant tax cuts, mostly aimed at helping Greek households cope with ongoing c...

Anyone hoping for a calm summer in Greece just had their hopes dashed. A political storm is engulfing Athens, with four government officials already ousted amid a deepening scandal tied to the misuse of EU agricultural funds. At the heart of the storm is OPEKEPE—the Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aid. An explosive investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s O...

As the world mulls the impact and consequences of the tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump on so-called "liberation day", Greece has a very specific concern. The focus of the tariff-related debate in Greece was very much on the fate of feta, Greece's most popular cheese and one of its main agricultural exports to the US and many other parts of the world. What is feta? Why does it hold su...

Two years after Greece's deadliest rail disaster, the political fallout is escalating rather than abating. The largest protests Greece has seen in decades were held on February 28 to mark the two-year anniversary of the crash, in which 57 people died when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Tempe, central Greece. The growing public outcry over how the aftermath of the crash has been...

The return of Donald Trump to the White House seems to be causing a reordering of international relations, an end to many of the certainties we had in geopolitics. This has left Europe facing a major re-think of its stance on security and defence issues. To discuss what changes are taking place and what it means for Europe, including Greece, Dr Jens Bastian joined us in The Agora. Jens is a Senior...

On the latest episode of The Agora we look at what the return of Donald Trump to the White House could mean for Greece. Host Nick Malkoutzis speaks to Macropolis foreign policy analyst Alexandra Voudouri about the concerns and hopes Greek diplomats have concerning the Trump presidency and its impact on geopolitics. Our second guest, Frank De Mita, who has worked on several US presidential campaign...

Costas Simitis, who served as Greece's prime minister between 1996 and 2004, died at the age of 88 on January 5. He left behind a bountiful legacy, which included Greece's entry into the euro and a raft of infrastructure projects. His record, though, is contested by some Greeks who feel that the seeds of future problems were sown during his period in office. On this episode of The Agora, host Nick...

Greek Parliament is about to vote on the 2025 budget, so The Agora is looking at what the government's economic plan entails, while also examining the bigger picture as far as the country's economy is concerned. MacroPolis co-founder Yiannis Mouzakis joins us to explain why there has been so much attention on the revenue side of the budget. He also identifies where the key strengths and weaknesses...

SYRIZA, the leftist party that experienced a stunning rise to power from the fringes of Greek politics, has elected a new leader but will it be enough to rescue it from its slide back to the sidelines? Its former leader, nascent politician Stefanos Kasselakis, has hit back by launching his own party, Movement for Democracy. Will he have any impact or is it all show? These are some of the questions...

In mid-November, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to expel from the ruling New Democracy party one of his predecessors, Antonis Samaras. Samaras headed the centre-right party for several years and was the leader of a coalition government between 2012 and 2015, which means his dismissal was big news in Greece. So, why did Mitsotakis make this dramatic move and what it could mean not...

Nikos Androulakis has been re-elected as leader of PASOK, the centre-left party that is hoping to establish itself as the main opposition party in Greece and, ultimately, challenge centre-right New Democracy for power. Given that Androulakis cruised to his victory, was there any point to this leadership contest? Also, where does it leave PASOK as it seeks to take advantage of turmoil at leftist SY...

The Agora hosts a discussion on how Europe, and Greece specifically, have been handling the green transition, addressing questions like how the pivot away from natural gas is going. The basis for our discussion is three articles written by MacroPolis features editor Georgia Nakou , and senior policy analyst and partner at The Green Tank , an Athens-based think-tank, Nikos Mantzaris . The articles...

The European Parliament elections held in Greece on June 9 produced a few surprises, some of which could be significant for the country's political scene over the next few months and years. The ruling centre-right party, New Democracy, performed worse than opinion polls had suggested and fell below the bar set by its leader, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The main opposition parties, leftist...

Greece is preparing to welcome a record number of tourists again this year, but their visits will take place against a backdrop of growing concern among locals about the damage being done to the islands and their way of life by rapid development. Greek policy makers face a dilemma over how to balance the growth and job creation provided by tourism, a vital industry for the local economy, against t...

After going through a really difficult time during the country’s long economic crisis, the Greek property market is booming, but that's creating a whole new set of problems. High rental and purchase prices are pricing out much of the local population as foreign investors snap up apartments and entire buildings in pursuit of profits. Host Nick Malkoutzis is joined by Stelios Bouras , a journalist w...

In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the European Union launched the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) - a package of around 700 billion euros to help member states recover from the economic impact and build for the future. Greece's portion of these funds is considered vital for the country's efforts to overcome the effects of its long economic crisis, as well as the disruption caused by the pa...

Phoebe and Nick are back to examine the contrasting images of Greece abroad and how they sit side by side. A few months ago, rating agencies started to restore the investment grade for Greece's sovereign debt - more than a decade after it was lost. It was a reflection of the growing confidence that markets have in the political situation, the government's policy choices and the country's prospects...