Nikitas Kaklamanis

"No more plastic bags," newspaper titles touted on August 10, after the publication of a joint ministerial decree announcing that consumers would have to pay 3 cents for each plastic shopping bag used as of January 1, 2018, and 7 cents as of January 1, 2019.

SYRIZA MP Zoi Konstantopoulou, who was officially nominated yesterday by her party for Parliament speaker, is likely to break the record for most votes ever received by a candidate for the specific post in today's vote, scheduled to take place at 11 a.m. (Athens time).

There was growing pressure on the government on Thursday, even from within its own ranks, to come up with some kind of proposal that might bring the political parties together and avoid early elections.

The coalition is expected to comfortably win a confidence vote in Parliament on Friday, especially after its ranks were boosted on Thursday by the return of independent MP Nikitas Kaklamanis to New Democracy.

The Greek coalition government, which faces a crucial confidence vote on Friday, saw its parliamentary majority rise to 155 MPs in the 300-seat House after senior partner New Democracy accepted a request by former Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis to be let back into the conservative party fold.

Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos has attributed reports of differences between him and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras over foreign policy issues to detractors who would rather see New Democracy cooperate with the far right than PASOK.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos slammed his predecessor George Papandreou for failing to support both articles of the omnibus bill in a late vote on Sunday but stopped short of ousting the former prime minister from the party, a move that would have put the coalition’s majority at risk.

The omnibus bill containing liberalization measures and other reforms that Greece needed to pass to receive its next bailout tranche squeezed through Parliament at just after midnight on Sunday but the vote led to the government’s majority dwindling further.