Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to announce his candidate for Greek President to the Parliamentary Group at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Sources state that he will continue to insist on European Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos as Karolos Papoulias’ replacement.
The candidacy, however, has yet to be confirmed following the objections by members of SYRIZA who believe that the conservative New Democracy candidate is not ideal for the job. Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said that Avramopoulos was one of the officials of the bailout agreement and should not be considered.
Manolis Glezos, famous for his participation in the World War II resistance, insists that the candidate for president should be from the ranks of the left. He is just one of the SYRIZA deputies openly opposed to a conservative candidacy for the largely titular role. “This game has to stop. When (socialist) PASOK was in government, the President of the Republic was from (conservative) New Democracy and when New Democracy (was in power) the president was from PASOK,” said Glezos, speaking to Kokkino radio station, adding that the most important thing is to “fulfill the will of the Greek people who want those games ot end; and its fulfillment would be to have a President of the Republic from the Left.”
The choice of Avramopoulos, however, sends out a message of collaboration and is a strictly strategic choice. Nonetheless, a number of circumstances are causing friction, such as conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras’ moves on Monday to join forces with socialist PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos and centrist Potami party, shortly after the Eurogroup meeting, in order to coordinate “pro-European political forces.”
The roll call vote for the election of the new President of Republic is to be held on Wednesday at 7.30 p.m. According to the Constitution, the candidate that will be supported by 3/5 of the total number of deputies will be elected new President of the Republic.