All Greek media had announced a televised address to the nation by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The PM was supposed to officially name the Presidential candidate – a coalition government choice. The announcement was scheduled for short after 8 pm Sunday.
The name considered as the favorite among a short list of candidates was Dimitris Avramopoulos, the current EU Commissioner for Migration. Vice-president of conservative Nea Dimokratia. A candidate from the center-right.
Clocks ticked 8:15, 8:20, 8:30, 8:40 … Nothing happened. Clocked ticked 9 o’ clock. Still there was no Tsipras on our television screens. Clocks ticked 9:15. Nothing.
At 9:30, government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis came out form the PM’s office to tell reporters that … inside the PM’s office, the government was discussing its strategy for the Eurogroup tomorrow Monday.
Sakellaridis said also that the PM will announce the name of the Presidential candidate after the Eurogroup meeting. Tsipras “will announce the name on Tuesday, the voting will take place on Wednesday, Sakellaridis said.
Immediately several scenarios started to make the rounds as it was rather clear that there was no consent the candidate.
One of the claims is that the “Left Platform” component of SYRIZA raised objections to Avramopoulos candidacy “because he had voted in favor of loan agreements” and it proposed a candidate from the center-left. Fact is that Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy, Panagiotis Lafazanis had indeed visited the Prime Minister Sunday afternoon.
The government spokesman vehemently dismissed the claim of Left Platform objection.
Tsipras had also a meeting with his junior coalition partner Panos Kammenos.
Other scenarios claimed it was EU President Jean-Claude Juncker, who would not let Avramopoulos being replaced and hence by a Left-wing politician of SYRIZA. however I had thought that Tsipras had solved this issue with Juncker on Thursday at the EU Leaders Summit.
A third scenario claims that Kammenos proposed Dora Bakoyianni (ND).
Anyway, the issue is still open. Unofficially, the names of other candidates for the Presidency are: writer Ioanna Karystiani, former ND minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos, former PASOK Minister Manolis Drettakis.
Based on the number of seats in Parliament, SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition can certainly propose a candidate form the left or the center-left and win the voting. However, Tsipras wants apparently a candidate who will enjoy the support of more than just the coalition government parties.
Should Avramopoulos be the candidate, the votes he would be expected to win would be 238, at least.
According to the Constitution in the new round of Presidential voting.
180 votes are needed for the first round and 150 in the second.
The first round were the three unsuccessful voting in December 2014.
PS whatever. The whole Monday we are going to play with the deal or no deal scenarios at Eurogroup.
