2008

Events

January

• January 1: The euro replaces the pound as the currency of Cyprus.
• January 8: An Athens court granted parole to Costas Agapiou, the last jailed member of ELA, three years into his 25-year prison term.
• January 15: Greek Australian fans are maced by Victoria Police during an Australian Open match between Konstantinos Economidis and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.
• January 16: Olympiakos humble Panathinaikos 4-0 to advance into the Greek Football Cup's quarterfinal round.
• January 23: PM Costas Karamanlis visits Turkey marking the first official visit by a Greek PM to that country since 1959.
• January 31: New Democracy (ND) deputy Costas Koukodimos announces that he was leaving the party's Parliamentary group and to become an independent. His resignation reduced New Democracy's majority in the 300-seat house to just 151.

February

• February 2: A group of extreme leftists clashed with right-wing (Chrysi Avgi) demonstrators, injuring at least three people and prompting riot police to fire tear gas and blockade streets in central Athens.
• February 7: Metropolitan Hieronymus of Thebes is elected Archbishop of Athens and all Greece.
• February 7: Alekos Alavanos, the leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), bid farewell to Greek politics and called for his party to fight the dominance of PASOK and New Democracy.
• February 10: Alexis Tsipras was elected the new leader for the Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology (SYN) party, with an overwhelming majority of 70.41%, at the party's 5th Congress.
• February 12: AEK Athens sack Spanish coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.
• February 13: Unions call a general strike throughout Greece to protest the Karamanlis government proposed pension reform law.
• February 17: Ioannis Kasoulidis wins the first round of the Cyprus presidential elections with 33.51%. AKEL chairman, Dimitris Christofias places second with 33.29%. Incumbent President, Tasos Papadopoulos is eliminated from the runoff as he places third with 31.79%.
• February 19: UN special envoy Matthew Nimetz put forward a proposal in the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The proposal, which was leaked to Greek daily To Vima, identifies five name suggestions: Constitutional Republic of Macedonia, Democratic Republic of Macedonia, Independent Republic of Macedonia, New Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Upper Macedonia.
• February 24: AKEL chairman, Dimitris Christofias, is elected President of Cyprus, receiving 53.36% of the votes cast in the runoff against MEP Ioannis Kasoulidis.

March

• March 3: NATO secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer comes to Athens to discuss Greece's threat to veto the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's (FYROM) bid for NATO membership. NATO member Greece has vowed to block FYROM's bid to join the alliance unless the name issue is resolved.
• March 3: Georgi Vasilev resigned as coach of Greek Super League club Levadiakos - a day after his team slumped to a 3-0 home defeat by fellow struggling team OFI Crete.
• March 6: NATO foreign ministers debated whether to invite three Balkans countries (Albania, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join the military alliance, as Greece threatened to veto the entry of FYROM because of the Macedonia name dispute.
• March 8: A train derailed near Larisa causing injuries to 23 persons.
• March 11: Greek electricity utility unions vowed to extend their strike in protest against a pension reform bill with more power cuts, and council workers joined a strike over the bill that unions say cuts benefits.
• March 11: Olympiacos CFP parts company with head coach Panagiotis Lemonis despite the club lying in second place in the Super League.
• March 13: The tourist ship "Giorgis" runs aground 3 nautical miles from Poros.
• March 19: Millions of Greeks walked off the job in the third general strike since December, causing the cancellation of dozens of flights, stranding ships at ports and shutting down public services including schools, ministries and banks. Tens of thousands of people took part in a march through the Greek capital Athens to protest the conservative government's plans to overhaul the country's debt-ridden pension system, which risks going bankrupt in 20 years.
• March 20: Greece's parliament has narrowly passed the conservative government's controversial pension reform bill that triggered mass public protests. The bill passed with 151 votes in favor, 13 against and 136 abstentions.

Deaths

January

• January 6: Alekos Michailidis, Cypriot politician
• January 28: Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece

March

• March 4: Elena Nathanail, actress