Theodoros Parastatidis

A pressure cooker environment is escalating as the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) is pushing for more measures demanded by Greece’s creditors (EC, ECB, ESM, IMF) while farmers are battling to protect their rights.

Rachil Makri, the former Independent Greeks MP who spent the last few months as a nonaligned lawmaker, was the surprise inclusion on Friday in SYRIZA?s list of candidates for the upcoming general elections.

SYRIZA is due to announce its candidates for the upcoming elections Friday. They will include some independent MPs who did not vote in favor of the government?s presidential candidate last month, while other lawmakers who contributed to snap elections being called have been left out.

Parliament’s ethics committee is to investigate comments made by two independent MPs, Odysseas Voudouris and Theodoros Parastatidis, in which they appeared to cast doubt on the motives of lawmakers who voted for the government’s presidential candidate.

Greek MPs are to vote Tuesday in the second ballot of a three-phase presidential election amid a growing political crisis that has been sharpened by the bribery allegations of Independent Greeks MP Pavlos Haikalis and a slew of threats and counter-threats in Parliament.