Politics of Greece

The coalition attempted on Friday to step out of the shadow cast by the revelations regarding ex-cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos’s contact with Golden Dawn, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras insisting he would not let the neo-Nazi party dictate the political agenda.

By Nikos Konstandaras

A file photo of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras looking at Panayiotis Baltakos, seen in the foreground.

 MPs call off meeting on multi-bill vote as Papandreou insists he is not a threat to party

 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.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Premier Evengelos Venizelos are due to hold a second meeting on Monday to discuss the fallout from the passing of the multi-bill through Parliament on Sunday night and preparations for the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday.

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.

Former Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and his wife Stavroula Kourakou are expected to face a prosecutor on April 8 in connection to the alleged submission of two inaccurate source of wealth (“pothen esches”) declarations in 2009 and 2010.

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.