The very first challenge Greece’s new coalition government has to deal with is the Presidential election. But before this procedure is launched, other modalities have to be settled: form the cabinet, open the Parliament, get a vote of confidence.
Cabinet
The names of the ministers to form Greece’s new cabinet in SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition are expected to be announced tomorrow Tuesday. It is not clear yet, how many ministries or deputy ministries Tsipras’ junior partner is going to get. SYRIZA has won 149 seats and Independent Greeks 13.
Τhe new Prime Minister reportedly wants a small and flexible cabinet, with merged ministries to be staffed with ministers, alternate ministers and deputy ministers.
Several names are tipped off by the media concerning several ministerial posts, but that’s not official. For example that Yiannis Varoufakis was to be appointed to the Finance Ministry, Yiannis Dragasakis as deputy PM and Nikos Kotzias as Foreign Minister.
The new cabinet is to be sworn-in tomorrow Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.
New Parliament
The new Parliament will be inaugurated on February 5th and will elect the Parliament Speaker and the Presidium on the next day.
The new government will announce its program, a vote of confidence will follow.
With new coalition government holding 162 seats in Parliament, SYRIZA-IndepGreeks coalition surpasses the absolute majority of 151 seats/votes in a Parliament of 300.
Tsipras wanted to gain also the “tolerance” by Potami (17 seats) and KKE (15 seats). The Communist party rejected a request by SYRIZA for a meeting between Alexis Tsipras and Dimitris Koutsoumpas and burned all bridges for dialogue right away.
As for the party of ex TV journalist Stavros Theodorakis…. well… Monday morning he said he did not want to have anything to do with the coalition because Independent Greeks were “nationalists and anti-Europeans” but later it implied he might give a vote of tolerance after hearing the program of the new government.
A meeting between Tsipras and Theodorakis is due Monday at 7 pm.
Presidential election
Right after the vote of confidence, the new government has to initiate the procedure for the Presidential elections.
After the failure of the first three rounds of Presidential voting in December 2014, the next three rounds of voting that lay ahead require:
First round: 180 votes
Second round: simple majority, i.e. 151 votes
Third round: relative majority based on the number of present MPs
There is an interval of five days between the voting rounds.
Practically, SYRIZA-IndepGreeks coalition can elect their candidate on the second round. However, SYRIZA has reportedly in mind, a candidate from the centre-right, in order to force Nea Dimokratia to vote in favor.
The name of EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has been making the rounds in Greek media, but nothing is yet.