Wednesday will witness the first and only televised debate of the seven political leaders whose parties were represented in the outgoing Parliament, sans the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party.
The political “gab fest” will come days before the third time Greek voters are asked to cast their ballot in 2015.
On the almost … perpetual campaign trail, conservative ND on Tuesday again accused Alexis Tsipras of telling “monstrous lies.”
Meanwhile, the head of the newly formed Popular Unity party, firebrand leftist Panagiotis Lafazanis, predicted from Thessaloniki that his SYRIZA breakaway formation will post the “big surprise” in the snap poll. He also charged that his former comrade in SYRIZA, ex-PM Alexis Tsipras, tried to surprise dissenters with his resignation and call for another election.
Meanwhile, the final “architect” of the third memorandum delivered by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, UK-based academic and former FinMin Euclid Tsakalotos, dismissed a notion that a “grand coalition” can lead Greece out of the crisis. Rather he said Greece needs a “leftist government”, i.e. SYRIZA.
Tsakalotos is also the co-author of the now infamous “Thessaloniki program”, a series of spending hikes, welfare bonuses and public sector investments promised by Tsipras while in the opposition — in tandem with the tearing up of the memorandum.
In an even more curious statement, Tsakalotos said a left-wing government “could process and implement a ‘parallel program’ (along with the memorandum) that cannot be implemented with neo-liberal forces.”
He didn’t give more details about the specifics of such a “parallel program”.