Baltakos rejects reports of plans to form own party

Ex-cabinet secretary and prime-ministerial adviser Panayiotis Baltakos says he is not poised to form his own party but believes New Democracy should be doing more to attract right-wing voters.

“I have not said that I am personally aiming to create a right-wing grouping,” Baltakos told told Saturday’s edition of Efimerida ton Syntakton, thereby denying media reports. “I have no such desire or intention. I said something else: At the European Parliament elections, 16.5 percent of the electorate, or some 900,000 voters – including those supporting Golden Dawn – were to the right of New Democracy.

“If someone could wave a magic wand and transfer this support to New Democracy, it would have 39 percent, which would be enough to form a government on its own.”

Baltakos was forced to resign from the government in April after footage emerged of him holding a secret meeting with Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris.