Evangelos Venizelos

 Former PM rules out speculation he plans to form his own political party

Two days after voting against changes to the bank capitalization framework, former Prime Minister and PASOK leader George Papandreou on Tuesday said he would never jeopardize the government's parliamentary majority, while ruling out speculation that he plans to form his own political party.

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.

People line up outside a pharmacy in central Athens that was on duty on Friday. Pharmacists have been on strike for several days and have vowed to continue their action unless the government withdraws a provision for the deregulation of the over-the-counter drug market.

The government is to draft legislation aimed at creating greater transparency regarding party finances and to reduce the total funding they receive to around 10 million euros a year, sources told Sunday’s Kathimerini.

The contest for the May 25 European Parliament elections is due to intensify next week as the center-left Olive Tree alliance and To Potami, the new party led by journalist Stavros Theodorakis, are due to announce their candidate list and manifesto respectively.

A contentious provision that would lead to any immigrants who make false claims against law enforcement officers being deported from Greece is likely to be brought to Parliament for a third time, the government’s general secretary Takis Baltakos said on Friday.

Talks in Athens on Thursday between Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman indicated that the possibility of a pipeline being built to carry natural gas from Israel to Greece via Cyprus has diminished.

After reaching an agreement with the troika on Tuesday, the Greek government now has to prepare legislation for the reforms it agreed with its lenders in the hope that the disbursement of at least 10 billion euros in loans will be approved at an informal Eurogroup meeting due to take place in Athens on April 1.

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos has called for a “diplomatic and political” solution to the dispute in Crimea after a referendum on Sunday indicated that the vast majority of its citizens want the region to join Russia.