Television cameras and journalists mobbed Liani, 40, when she arrived at parliament in central Athens with her husband, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, 76, for the meeting of the socialist deputies group. She caused a fresh uproar by taking a seat at the meeting because she has not been elected to parliament but insists on accompanying Papandreou on all occasions.
Liani, who first appeared as Papandreou's lover in 1988, has captivated the public again in recent weeks with the publication of naked pictures from her youth on newspaper front pages.
She sparked a fresh outcry with a television interview last week, intended to answer criticism about her private life but giving all the signs of someone planning to run for office. She currently holds the position of Papandreou's powerful chief-of-staff. She particularly angered a number of veteran socialists by trying to prove her credentials as an early militant member of the socialist party, which her husband founded in 1974.
On Monday, the newspaper Avriani published another picture of Liani, allegedly showing her reclining naked on a bed while petting a dog.
At least one deputy at the meeting Monday wanted to put aside other work and hold an immediate debate on Liani's increasingly powerful role.
"I proposed an emergency session to discuss the involvement in politics of the director of the prime minister's private office, Mrs Dimitra Liani," Ioannis Papaspyrou told reporters in the hall outside the meeting.
Stating bluntly what some deputies have implied, he said: "The negative climate toward PASOK [the socialist party] is due to the bad image of the parliamentary group and to Mrs. Liani."
Papandreou, elected in 1993, has tried to weather the storm over Liani -- a former Olympic Airways stewardess -- but it keeps coming back to haunt him. His party now trails the conservatives by five percentage points.
The renegade socialist publisher of Avriani, once an ardent Papandreou supporter, has vowed to drive Liani from public life with the nude pictures and other alleged revelations.
Its circulation booming, Avriani is determined to force her to quit her position as Papandreou's chief-of-staff and to abandon any political ambitions she may harbor.
The newspaper called Liani by her pet name, "Mimi," and offered free advice to the socialist deputies in its front-page headline: "Throw Out Mimi Now! Last chance for the salvation of PASOK."
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