In Greece continues political uncertainty and concerns among the Government for the third vote for head of state. Greek Government spends its Christmas holidays in continuous secret negotiations, lobbying and in an effort to acquire votes of independent MPs and MPs from the opposition parties, such as Independent Greeks and the Democratic Left.
Everything will be decided on Monday afternoon, when the vote is scheduled. The rumors say that the Government cannot reach a number 180 MPs necessary for Stavros Dimas to be voted president. There is hope that the number of 168 MPs, who supported Dimas in the second round, would be surpassed in the third round, but, so far, neither side indicates certainty or guarantee that Dimas will be elected. On the contrary, a scenario for elections in late January or early February is more likely.
It is expected that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will again address the public and MPs over the weekend. This will be his last attempt to keep the mandate of the Government and convince 12 MPs to support Dimas to avoid elections.
The climate of political division reinforce speculation that, on Monday, if a fiasco happens with Dimas, ex-Prime Minister George Papandreou would announce that he is leaving PASOK to form his own party. This step would mean increasing the downfall of PASOK. Socialist Party urges Papandreou to consider before splitting the party, criticizing that such a move would be a desecration of the work of his family, of Andreas Papandreou as a founder of the party.
According to polls for public opinion, citizens are divided in their attitude weather Dimas should be elected or elections should be announced. The results of the poll on television Alpha show that 57 percent of respondents don’t want elections at the moment. SYRIZA continues to lead in front of the New Democracy with 3.5 percent.
