ATHENS — Kimberly Guilfoyle’s arrival in Greece has triggered a level of attention usually reserved for pop stars or prime ministers. In the month since she exploded onto the scene in Athens, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador has fused tabloid-level fascination with high-stakes geopolitics, championing major U.S.-backed energy projects and touching off a diplomatic confrontation with China over control of one of Greece’s most strategic ports. A former Fox News host and prosecutor who was once married to California Governor Gavin Newsom and dated Donald Trump, Jr., Guilfoyle has dazzled the Greek capital with flashy television showings and unapologetic diplomatic muscle-flexing.  Guilfoyle’s approach has elicited grumblings from some opposition figures concerned about the extent to which Greek policy appears to be shaped by the American embassy. Though she was a prominent surrogate for Donald Trump during his presidency and a key fundraiser in his political operation, her appointment as ambassador came as a surprise even within Republican circles. But that hasn’t stopped lifestyle shows from featuring her outfits and her ability to cut Greek dance moves, or politicians and businesspeople from lining up to stand next to her during her diplomatic outings.  For the most part, her description of Greeks, uttered in 2015 when she was a journalist, as “freeloaders” who need to be punished like a dog who “pees on the rug,” is long forgotten. Kimberly Guilfoyle arrives at the Greek Presidential Palace to present her credentials to the Greek president in Athens on Nov. 4, 2025. | Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images At a Thanksgiving dinner organized by the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, Guilfoyle took the stage last week in a figure-hugging, floor-length lace gown. “Kalispera,” she told the assembled businesspeople and dignitaries. The crowd cheered her deployment of the Greek greeting. She left the event through a gauntlet of lifestyle reporters eager to get footage of the departing ambassador.  “Ms. Guilfoyle, your dress is so beautiful,” one of them gushed. SOCIAL BLITZ Guilfoyle, who declined to be interviewed for this article, landed in Athens on Nov. 1 in a private jet belonging to Greek businessman Eric Vassilatos and immediately plunged into a week of high-profile appearances.  A day after her arrival — and a formal dinner at a central luxury hotel — her favorite Greek singer, Konstantinos Argyros, staged a special event at the nightclub where he performs to mark her debut. Ministers, bankers and business figures rushed to attend the unusual invitation issued by a pop star. “I will not disappoint the U.S. and Greece,” she said, dressed in a sparkling silver gown and fur jacket, before linking arms with high-profile guests for traditional Greek folk dances. Her first official meeting, a credential presentation with Greek President Konstantinos Tassoulas, quickly went viral after she recounted discovering Greece while on honeymoon. “Honeymoon was fabulous — but the marriage?” Tassoulas quipped. “We’ll work on getting a new husband,” she replied. The galas have scarcely paused. Usually accompanied by her son Ronan, her stylist Fancy James or her close associate Cassidy Kofoed, the ambassador has already been presented with a medal by the municipality of Hydra and named honorary president of the Propeller Club Port of Piraeus.  Business groups have organized a steady stream of receptions in her honor while cameras have tracked her from basketball games, where she sat among team owners, to a fashion show. DEAL MAKING The social blitz has coincided with a burst of activity on substance, with Guilfoyle wielding her ambassadorial power in the service of a series of deals between Washington and Athens. During her first week in office, Greece signed an agreement with U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil to begin offshore drilling — the country’s first such project in more than 40 years — with U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on hand, a move that sees Athens diverging from EU climate-action plans. Days later, Athens and Kyiv struck a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas to help Ukraine meet its winter needs, making Greece the first EU country to participate directly in Washington’s effort to replace “every last molecule of Russian gas” with American LNG. The deal was sealed during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; Guilfoyle attended the signing and stood between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Zelenskyy for the official photograph — underscoring the U.S. role in the decision.  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets with new U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle at Maximos mansion in Athens, Greece on Nov. 5, 2025. | Costas Baltas/Anadolu via Getty Images She made her priorities even clearer at an embassy dinner with political and business leaders: “If you buy LNG from us, I will invite you again. Otherwise … you’re off the guest list.” She angered China in her first media interview, in which she called China’s ownership of the Port of Piraeus “unfortunate” and floated the idea that it could be “worked out” — suggesting a potential sale.  Beijing blasted the remarks as “malicious slander” and “serious interference in Greek internal affairs.” “The investment is a model of mutual cooperation and not geopolitical influence,” said Chinese Ambassador Fang Qiu. Shortly after the controversy, Athens accelerated plans for a new U.S.-backed port in Elefsina — a project discussed in a meeting between Guilfoyle and Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos and fast-tracked days later through parliament without a tender.  Opposition parties denounced the move as opaque and politically driven. “We are not a country where an ambassador announces policies,” said Anna Diamantopoulou, a member of the opposition socialist PASOK party and a former European commissioner. “As a country, shouldn’t we discuss them in parliament?”  The Exxon deal has also attracted criticism.  The Greek prime minister “is bowing to the interests of U.S. companies,” said Sokratis Famellos, leader of the left-wing opposition Syriza party. “We are seeing our country being turned into a gateway for American LNG, because that is in the interests of American companies.” At times, even the government has bristled at the American enthusiasm for Greek affairs. In a newspaper interview Sunday, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack suggested that he and Guilfoyle could lead a rapprochement between Athens and Ankara: “She’s a great friend of mine. We’ve talked about it with our president and said, “Could we be the mortar, somehow, in bringing these two bricks together in a new way, bit by bit?” This week, in a briefing with journalists, the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochiou brushed back the suggestion. “We handle issues with Turkey bilaterally, as required by international law,” she said. “Therefore, no third-party initiative has been undertaken and no such proposal has been submitted to Greece.” PRESIDENTIAL VISIT Guilfoyle’s reception stands in stark contrast to past views of the U.S. in Greece. For decades Washington’s relationship with Athens was marked by distrust — from anger over American support for the 1967–74 junta to street protests in the 1980s against U.S. bases and frustrations over Washington’s neutrality toward Turkey. Former diplomats recall checking under their cars for bombs and receiving little cooperation from Greek authorities during periods of anti-American violence. Former U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt recalled a 2018 visit to Greece by then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that was disrupted by protests against a U.S.-backed agreement with North Macedonia. With tear gas pouring into the basement of the concert hall, Ross and his wife were hustled into an SUV. “Wilbur Ross’s wife was asking me if this was going to be like ‘Homeland,’” Pyatt said. “And I told her that no, everything was going to be fine, and nobody was going to get hurt. There were just some protesters who wanted to get things off their chest.” That dynamic shifted after Greece’s long financial crisis. As Europe imposed harsh austerity, Washington took a more sympathetic line and defense ties deepened dramatically. By 2022, Athens had granted the U.S. open-ended access to four key bases, and Pyatt says concerns that once dominated bilateral talks “have now gone away,” replaced by what he calls a “robust defense partnership.” Guilfoyle has said she would love to see U.S. President Donald Trump visit Athens.  “Well, of course, we would all love that, wouldn’t we?” she said in an interview with Greek television. “Have [Trump] give a speech at the Acropolis. I hope he will come, I’ll ask him to come.”

ATHENS — Left-wing former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras released his memoir Monday, revisiting Athens’ time on the eurozone’s cliff edge and blasting his ex-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. In the book, titled “Ithaki” (Ithaca) and spanning 762 pages, Tsipras chronicles his political journey, defends his political choices and attempts some self-reflection. He is also critical of several former allies, particularly firebrand Varoufakis, whom he fell out with during the peak of the 2015 eurozone crisis. Tsipras admitted that he “underestimated the human factor” when choosing him and argues that Varoufakis was “more celebrity than economist.” Tsipras was 34 years old when he became the Syriza party’s leader and oversaw its electoral leap from 4.6 percent in 2009 to 36.3 percent in 2015. The radical left-wing party gained Europe-wide notoriety at the zenith of the financial crisis in 2015, when it looked as though Tsipras and Varoufakis were about to lead Athens out of the eurozone in high-stakes negotiations with German-led debt hawks in the EU. In July 2015, after winning a referendum in which Greeks rejected the EU’s proposed bailout terms — a symbolic victory that ultimately changed little — Tsipras reversed course, accepted a new bailout to keep Greece in the euro and was reelected that September. The former PM, who left office in 2019, repeatedly says in the book that he never truly considered the idea of a so-called Grexit from the eurozone, but confirms the risk was real and part of former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble’s plan as Athens’ fiscal woes rattled the common currency. Tsipras wrote that Varoufakis facilitated this with his confrontational approach and strategic brinkmanship until he was “ousted” from the Finance Ministry. “Varoufakis went from being an asset to a negative protagonist. Not only could our potential allies not stand him, but neither could his own colleagues,” he said. Tsipras ultimately soured on his finance minister when Varoufakis presented him with his “Plan B,” which involved introducing a parallel currency using vouchers. “‘Instead of giving money to pensioners and employees, we would print vouchers that they could use to buy goods and services,'” Varoufakis said. When I heard this, I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. I reacted, ‘Are you serious?’” Tsipras recalled. Tsipras also described his government’s attempts to turn to the Kremlin for financial aid. On June 19, 2015, during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Tsipras suggested to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he make a symbolic investment of €200-300 million in Greek government bonds.  “His answer was honest and blunt,” Tsipras said. “Putin said he would rather give the money to an orphanage because, he said, giving it to Greece would be like throwing it in the trash.” He suggested Greece reach an agreement with the Europeans, particularly German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In October, Tsipras stepped down from his parliamentary seat and left Syriza, as speculation mounts that he will form a new party.

ATHENS — A doctor whose daughter was killed in a train crash has emerged as the unlikely figurehead of a wave of protests against the political establishment in Greece. Many want Maria Karystianou to run for office, believing an outsider would be the best person to shake up a country that has been rocked by a series of scandals and where trust in politicians has plummeted. Karystianou, a 52-year-old pediatrician, is the president of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association, which is seeking justice for those involved in the February 2023 train crash in Tempi in which 57 people died, mostly students. Her 19-year-old daughter Marthi was one of those who died in the deadliest rail crash in Greek history, a disaster that raised deep concerns about the functioning of the state and resulted in mass street protests. “Greece has gone off the rails and remains there,” Karystianou said, juxtaposing the train crash and Greek politics. “I cannot bear to live in such a society, and I cannot imagine how we will continue to live with such a corrupt political system. This is an urgent need of society that cannot be met by the existing political system.” While speculation that Karystianou might be launching a political career has been rampant in local media, she has refused to confirm or deny the rumors, including when she spoke with POLITICO. Any new political movement would join a fragmented landscape, according to opinion polls, one that is overshadowed by profound distrust in the government and low support for the ruling party, the center-right New Democracy of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. With opposition parties also divided and unable to take advantage, some polls suggest a new political movement led by Karystianou could draw the support of 25 percent of voters. “I want to see something new, as does a large part of society. I also belong to this 25 percent,” she said. The deadly Tempi train crash “remains in the news mainly because it has managed to form a voice of opposition and express protest against the government and the political system more broadly. The protest is not necessarily anti-establishment but rather a voice of despair over the government’s chronic incompetence,” said Lamprini Rori, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Athens. THE TRAGEDY THAT HAUNTS THE GOVERNMENT The train crash left a deep scar on Greece. Two trains traveling at high speed in opposite directions on the same line — one carrying at least 150 people and one filled with cargo — collided head-on, killing 57 people and injuring 85. The disaster shone a spotlight on Greece’s aging 2,550-kilometer rail network, which had long faced criticism for alleged mismanagement, unfit equipment and poor maintenance.  “It is an open wound, as it is a crime committed by the state,” said Costas Eleftheriou, an assistant professor at Democritus University of Thrace and political analysis coordinator at the ENA Institute for Alternative Policies, an Athens think tank. “A railway that never operated according to the required specifications, a ministry leadership that assured it was safe, and then the conditions for the administration of justice are not being met.” In the February 2023 train crash in Tempi, 57 people died, mostly students. | Daneil Yovkov and Hans Lucas/Getty Images “Since those in government and opposition are unable to address the problem, we are currently in a deadlock.” Polls show that the vast majority of Greeks believe the government is trying to cover up what really happened and who was to blame. There have been claims that highly flammable chemicals were being transported. In March 2024 the Mitsotakis government survived a vote of no confidence, but its handling of the fallout has only intensified the scrutiny, with Athens dismissing a call from the European public prosecutor to take action over the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers. (The government made use of a provision in the Greek constitution that gives ministers immunity.) That’s where Karystianou comes in. Hailing from a middle-class background, she has gained national fame and become a symbol of the call for justice, winning a reputation for speaking clearly but with emotion. Her every word is now scrutinized by supporters and opponents alike. “I feel ashamed that a European prosecutor would come and say that our constitution protects ministers from accountability. This constitutional provision is abused by politicians even in cases of felonies, such as Tempi,” Karystianou said. The victims’ association has organized protests in Greece and beyond, as well as concerts and other events to keep the case in the public eye. Karystianou and other relatives of those who died in the crash have received hundreds of messages from Greeks encouraging the creation of a new political movement. Her phone also buzzes constantly with calls from MPs and political officials pledging to sign up if she does start a party. “A huge lack of trust in the ruling party and the opposition parties has created a demand in society for unconventional politics,” said Eleftheriou, the assistant professor. “When voters think of the victims’ families, they say, ‘These are people like us, and they are claiming their rights.’ They can understand their goal, identify with it, and rally behind it.” ON HUNGER STRIKE The latest street protests were part of a campaign by the families of victims to have their loved ones exhumed, both for identification and so that toxicological and other tests can be performed to check for the presence of flammable material. Panos Ruci, whose son Denis was killed in the crash, went on a 23-day hunger strike and camped outside the Greek parliament to put pressure on the government to agree to the exhumation request. Judicial authorities, who had said no to the request, eventually agreed to dig up the bodies. A group called Till the End has set up a makeshift memorial for the Tempi victims and has written the names of the 57 victims in red paint in front of the parliament. Every night for the past eight months at 11:18 p.m. — the time of the crash — the protesters read out the names of the dead. The government has said it will pass an amendment this month that will stop the mourners and protesters from gathering there, a decision that has met strong opposition.  “The systematic and detailed efforts of the victims’ relatives to find evidence of administrative incompetence in the government’s response to the accident reinforced popular opposition to the ruling party,” said Iannis Konstantinidis, associate professor with the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Macedonia. “The victims’ relatives — already having the moral high ground — also gained the political upper hand against a government that was perceived as inadequate at best.” However, he added, moral support doesn’t automatically translate into electoral support: “Their political opponents can attack them with arguments that do not concern morality but rather their inexperience or governability. Their moral and symbolic capital will then be insufficient.” Such attacks from rivals are something Karistianou will have to get used to if she decides to become a politician. “None of us can respond to what Karistianou is saying,” Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis told local radio station Parapolitika. “I respect her as a mother who lost her child. But if she becomes our political opponent tomorrow, she won’t have the same immunity and treatment. She’ll be our political opponent.” “None of us can respond to what Karistianou is saying,” Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Another problem, according to Rori at the University of Athens, is that new parties find it extremely difficult to survive, even if they manage to stick around for a couple of elections. “The intense debate surrounding the possibility of a new party led by Karistianou highlights the need for opposition representation and a potential political opportunity for a newcomer to the political scene. However, it is more likely that such a party would be stillborn — yet another flash party.” MORE NEW PARTIES Despite New Democracy’s decline in the polls, which suggests it would be unable to form a majority government if elections were held today, no serious challenger to Mitsotakis has emerged. Meanwhile, Greece’s former left-wing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, stepped down as an MP earlier this month, as speculation mounts that he is planning to form a new party. Pollsters have been trying to predict the public’s reaction to a potential new political party led by Tsipras and reckon that his potential base could be up to 20 percent of the electorate. While he has not officially confirmed rumors about a new party, Tsipras implied as much in his public resignation statement, telling former colleagues in the left-wing Syriza party: “We will not be rivals. Perhaps soon, we will travel together again to more beautiful seas.” Tsipras said he plans to publish a book by the end of the year on his time as prime minister. Another party from the right of the political spectrum is likely to emerge from former Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras. He was expelled from the party last year after strongly criticizing government policies, including on the relationship with neighboring Turkey, as well as what he considers “woke” approaches such as legislation recognizing same-sex marriage. There have been media reports that Karystianou could join forces with Samaras on a new political movement, as one of her associates used to be an adviser to the ex-PM. According to pollsters, some 9 percent of voters could potentially support a new party led by Samaras, which is expected to adopt an agenda that owes more than a little to U.S. President Donald Trump.

ATHENS — EU fraud investigators on Monday raided the offices of the Greek agency in charge of distributing EU farm funds that is at the center of a massive fraud scandal. The inspection by agents from the EU’s OLAF fraud team lasted eight hours at the offices of OPEKEPE, the state paying agency. It is expected to continue on Tuesday, with the investigators requesting documents concerning the agency’s organizational structure and contracts, according to two Greek officials granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. An OLAF spokesperson declined to comment on the raid, citing the confidential investigation and possible ensuing judicial proceedings. A massive scam to defraud the EU has convulsed Athens this year, after many Greeks improperly received farm subsidies for pastureland they did not own, or for farm work they did not do. POLITICO first reported on the scheme in February. Several ministers and deputy ministers resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal, which is also under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. The EU has already fined Athens €400 million after finding evidence of systemic failings in the handling of farm subsidies from 2016 through to 2023. EPPO had already raided OPEKEPE headquarters in May, meeting physical resistance to its inquiries. This was followed by a raid by Greek police in July. Greece risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption. The original deadline was Oct. 2, but this has now been pushed back to Nov. 4. “The Commission has not received the revised action plans from the Greek authorities,” a European Commission spokesperson said in response to a POLITICO inquiry. “The Commission is awaiting the submission of the revised action plan and in the meantime, it continues to be in contact with the Greek authorities.” Meanwhile, the Greek government announced last week it canceled subsidies for organic farming retroactively for 2024, after being inundated with fake applications. The Organic Farming and Animal Husbandry Program was set to run from June 2024 to June 2027 and had a budget of €287.5 million. More than 60,000 farmers had applied for subsidies under the program and it is not clear yet whether subsidies for 2025 will be paid. The Commission has yet to be notified of the government’s decision to pull the plug on the payments. “The Commission expects to be informed by the Greek authorities whenever EU agricultural funds are withheld, rerouted, or intended to be. As of Oct. 13, the Commission has received no such notification,” the spokesperson said.

ATHENS — Greece’s former left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stepped down Monday from his parliamentary seat as speculation mounts that he will form a new party. “I am resigning as a Syriza member of parliament, but I am not resigning from political activism,” Tsipras said in a statement. “I cannot and do not wish to formally participate in a parliament that, stripped bare of its democratic essence, is unable to fulfill its constitutional role and the demands of its citizens.” Tsipras characterized his decision as one of “conscience” and a move away from the institutional comfort of the parliament and into “the uncertainty of [direct] social engagement.” The remarks are largely considered Tsipras’ first step toward forming a new party that aspires to lead the Greek center left and left. Tsipras was 34 years old when he became Syriza leader 17 years ago and oversaw its electoral leap from 4.6 percent in 2009 to 36.3 percent in 2015. He served as Greece’s prime minister from 2015 to 2019, during some of the most turbulent years of the country’s financial crisis. In summer 2023, Tsipras resigned from the party’s leadership after a crushing defeat in national elections by the ruling center-right New Democracy party. Since then Syriza has faced an existential crisis, leading to many splinters, and lost its status as the country’s main opposition party. Consecutive polls reveal deep distrust of Greece’s political parties, as well as disagreement with government policies.   However, no real challenger to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has appeared. New Democracy is still comfortably atop polls, even though it would be unable to form a majority government if a new election were held this week. Polls indicate that Tsipras’ potential base could be up to 20 percent of the electorate, ahead of the next elections in 2027

ATHENS — Greece’s center-right New Democracy government announced Cabinet changes on Saturday following a wave of resignations in a massive scheme to defraud the EU’s farm budget. Thanos Plevris, a hardline MP with the nationalist Laos party, was appointed migration minister. He succeeds Makis Voridis, the highest profile official to resign on Friday after the European prosecutor implicated Greek ministers in the multimillion-euro scam involving EU agricultural funds. Other changes in the government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis include the appointments of Haris Theocharis as deputy foreign minister; Yiannis Andrianos as deputy minister for rural development and food; and Christos Dermentzopoulos as deputy minister of digital governance. Opposition parties were quick to criticize the appointment of Plevris. “The far-right line of Mitsotakis continues unabated with the choice of Thanos Plevris, an inhumane, dead-end and frightening line overall for the refugee issue and the image of the country,” the Syriza party said in a statement. The New Left party called his appointment “a message of hatred, racism, authoritarianism.” In a statement, the party recalled comments by Plevris in the past that “border security cannot exist if there are no casualties and, to be clear, if there are no deaths.” The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is pursuing dozens of cases in which Greeks received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease, or for agricultural work they did not perform, thereby depriving legitimate farmers of the funds they deserved. The fraud was the subject of a POLITICO investigation earlier this year. The hefty case file was referred to the Greek parliament as it included information regarding the alleged involvement “in criminal offenses” of two former ministers overseeing the rural development and food portfolio. According to Greek law, only the national parliament has the authority to investigate and prosecute current or former members of the Greek government. This means that, despite its broad mandate to investigate the misuse of EU funds, the EPPO lacks the power to pursue such cases in Greece. The agency has called this a violation of its founding EU regulation. Earlier Saturday, two more New Democracy officials stepped down after their names appeared in the case file. Andreas Karasarinis, secretary of the ruling party’s agricultural organizations, and Yiannis Troullinos, a member of its political committee, submitted their resignations.