Stavros Dimas is the candidate of the governing coalition to succeed President Karolos Papoulias. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has just announced that the former Foreign Minister and former European Commissioner will run for the presidency on the early voting that are scheduled for 17th of December.
Dimas is considered to be a candidate with moderate views and strong international credibility. Besides Dimas, who was Foreign Minister during the transitional government of Lucas Papademos in 2011 and who is a man of confidence to Samaras, media speculated the names of Papademos’ successor, who briefly led the technical government in 2012, Panayiotis Pikramenos, and the new Greek Commissioner and former Defense Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos. Also, the European mediator and academic Nikoforos Diamanturu, Chairman of the EU Court, Vassilis Skouris, and President of the Acropolis Museum, Dimitris Pandermajlis, are possible choices should a person who isn’t related to politics is elected. The media aso mentioned the names of former Greek European Commissioner Maria Damanaki, as well as former New Democracy MEP Marietta Giannakou as possible candidates, because there were rumors that Samaras may want to put a woman in the presidential chair.
The first voting will be held on 17th of December, while the last will be held on 29th of December, just before the end of the year.
All eyes will be essentially turned to the third voting, on which, unlike the first and second, instead of 200, 180 MPs are needed to elect a president. It is clear that the current government, with a majority of 155 votes, will not be able to get 200 MPs to support the common candidate. Even though it’s a difficult task, the Government hopes that it can manage to win 180 votes. According to the previous combinations reported in Greek media, the Government assumes that it has about 172-173 almost certain votes and, in the forthcoming days, it will try lobbying among independent candidates and candidates of smaller left-oriented parties, such as the Democratic Left, to get to 180 MPs.
It is only certain that it won’t get any support from SYRIZA, the Communist party, Golden Dawn and Independent Greeks. SYRIZA will not propose a candidate and will work the goal of having 121 MPs against Government’s candidate of all three voting procedures in order for early parliamentary elections to be scheduled. The opposition party is convinced that the presidential elections are a step towards early parliamentary elections, because they cannot see how the Government would be able to magically win over the MPs from other parties who are rebelling against its economic policy.
With the early presidential elections, independent candidates and the rest of the MPs, are, in fact, facing two dilemmas. First, the one related to the Government, is the current policy to continue and Greece to stabilize within a short period of time and stop the austerity program, or, second, the country to plunge into a new political uncertainty under the leadership of SYRIZA. The second dilemma refers to whether they want to continue the disastrous policy of strict austerity or, finally, to make a turn and end the austerity package which keeps Greece a puppet in the hands of foreign creditors.
Stavros Dimas is the candidate of the governing coalition to succeed President Karolos Papoulias. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has just announced that the former Foreign Minister and former European Commissioner will run for the presidency on the early voting that are scheduled for 17th of December.
Dimas is considered to be a candidate with moderate views and strong international credibility. Besides Dimas, who was Foreign Minister during the transitional government of Lucas Papademos in 2011 and who is a man of confidence to Samaras, media speculated the names of Papademos’ successor, who briefly led the technical government in 2012, Panayiotis Pikramenos, and the new Greek Commissioner and former Defense Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos. Also, the European mediator and academic Nikoforos Diamanturu, Chairman of the EU Court, Vassilis Skouris, and President of the Acropolis Museum, Dimitris Pandermajlis, are possible choices should a person who isn’t related to politics is elected. The media aso mentioned the names of former Greek European Commissioner Maria Damanaki, as well as former New Democracy MEP Marietta Giannakou as possible candidates, because there were rumors that Samaras may want to put a woman in the presidential chair.
The first voting will be held on 17th of December, while the last will be held on 29th of December, just before the end of the year.
All eyes will be essentially turned to the third voting, on which, unlike the first and second, instead of 200, 180 MPs are needed to elect a president. It is clear that the current government, with a majority of 155 votes, will not be able to get 200 MPs to support the common candidate. Even though it’s a difficult task, the Government hopes that it can manage to win 180 votes. According to the previous combinations reported in Greek media, the Government assumes that it has about 172-173 almost certain votes and, in the forthcoming days, it will try lobbying among independent candidates and candidates of smaller left-oriented parties, such as the Democratic Left, to get to 180 MPs.
It is only certain that it won’t get any support from SYRIZA, the Communist party, Golden Dawn and Independent Greeks. SYRIZA will not propose a candidate and will work the goal of having 121 MPs against Government’s candidate of all three voting procedures in order for early parliamentary elections to be scheduled. The opposition party is convinced that the presidential elections are a step towards early parliamentary elections, because they cannot see how the Government would be able to magically win over the MPs from other parties who are rebelling against its economic policy.
With the early presidential elections, independent candidates and the rest of the MPs, are, in fact, facing two dilemmas. First, the one related to the Government, is the current policy to continue and Greece to stabilize within a short period of time and stop the austerity program, or, second, the country to plunge into a new political uncertainty under the leadership of SYRIZA. The second dilemma refers to whether they want to continue the disastrous policy of strict austerity or, finally, to make a turn and end the austerity package which keeps Greece a puppet in the hands of foreign creditors.
