The opposition leader Alexis Tsipras will visit Mount Athos on Thursday and Friday, after receiving an invitation for the Mount Athos Holy Community.
The SYRIZA president will be accompanied by his party’s shadow minister on religious affairs MP Yannis Amanatidis, the religious affairs officer Makis Lykopoulos and his office director Nikos Pappas.
Mr. Tsipras will visit the state infrastructures on Mount Athos – the port authority, customs, police department etc – and the Monestary of Simonos Petras. On Friday he will visit that Karakalou, Stavronkita, Xenophontos and Iviron monasteries.
The SYRIZA leader’s visit is rather symbolic, as it has been almost two decades since the leader of a left party visited the autonomous monastic state. The last such visit was by KKE’s historic leader Charilaos Florakis in 1995.
