Politics of Greece

The coalition faces another difficult week, with the draft budget for 2015 to be submitted in Parliament on Monday amid ongoing negotiations with the troika and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras expected to seek a vote of confidence in the government.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appealed for political consensus so that Parliament can elect a president early next year and avert the risk of snap general elections in an article in Sunday’s Kathimerini.

In the months that followed Greece’s 2012 national election, the Democratic Left (DIMAR) party of Fotis Kouvelis, a moderate socialist, went on to shoulder part of the responsibility in the bid to rescue the debt-hit country, joining the coalition government along with conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who is due to take over as president of the European Commission on November 1, was back in Athens for the second time in a month on Friday as the Greek government sought to drive home its positions on the ongoing troika negotiations and plans for an early bailout exit with European decision makers.

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis came under heavy fire from one of the party’s MPs, Yiannis Panousis, on Friday over his leadership.

“When a leader says, ‘I’m resigning,’ he goes,” said Panousis in reference to Kouvelis’s decision to tender his resignation after the European Parliament elections May but not to leave the party.

Coalition leaders Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos expect their government to comfortably survive next Friday’s vote of confidence in Parliament.

The two men met for the second time in two days on Thursday and government sources said that both are confident that they will rally the 154 New Democracy and PASOK MPs for the vote.

The government said on Wednesday that it will request a vote of confidence when Parliament reconvenes after the summer recess next week, seeking to douse speculation about early elections and to rally coalition MPs and ministers as a crucial fifth review by the troika gets under way.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Premier Evangelos Venizelos are due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the negotiations with the troika, which began on Tuesday but were overshadowed by friction within the government.

The fifth, and probably final, review of Greece’s economic reform progress by the troika is set to begin with Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to meet foreign envoys on Tuesday morning while Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos will meet later in the day to discuss strategy in an increasingly tense political climate.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is to unveil plans for constitutional reform, including a change to the electoral system and the way the Greek president is elected, once the troika has completed its review of the country’s adjustment program, Kathimerini understands.