The first post-election conflict between the coalition parties and the opposition party erupted just hours after the polls closed, on the issue of early elections.

The conflict shows a different interpretation of election results by the main protagonists.

According to SYRIZA, the government no longer has the political and ethical legitimacy to implement its policy, after coming second in the ballots. ND and PASOK focus on the result that has shown that the people rejected Mr. Tsipras’ suggestion on “overthrowing” the government and in that sense, constitutes Mr. Tsipras’ defeat.

Under the leadership of both coalition parties, there is no question to be raised about the legitimacy of the government.

Mr. Tsipras visited the President, earlier and raised the issue of discord of the government with the electorate, based on the 4% difference from the New Democracy party.

The government’s response was immediate through its representative Mr. Simos Kedikoglou who stated that “Mr. Tsipras was unable to bring early elections upon us, did not convince the electorate of the “overthrow” he envisaged and proceeds to unprecedented institutional aberrations: The people were asked to vote for a European parliament, not for the country’s administration. Another diversion is the threats he flings towards the government in the lines of “they should not even consider…to govern”! Is he insisting on early national elections or is he trying to cause anarchy? Or both?”.

Similarly, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos attacked the president of SYRIZA: “With his current approach to the President, it brought the latter in an extremely difficult position, by having him listen to an unconstitutional proposal, which misrepresents the parliamentary system in Greece, the Constitution, and the country”.

The Prime Minister stated yesterday that he received the peoples’ message and will move forth with necessary changes, always within the confines of his government plan.

Of course, the government wants in no way to cause a climate of premature elections which might enhance the momentum built up by SYRIZA.
On the contrary, the government wants to give its policy time to catch up. If SYRIZA insists, the two parties will denounce him, for efforts to cause political anomaly. The government will generally reject Mr. Tsipras’ objections and declares that it will continue to implement its policy and will not stop governing.

However, in the next few days, political initiatives of PM Antonis Samaras are expected, which will prove that he got the message of the european elections.

Tomorrow, the PM will attend a dinner of EU leaders in Brussels. On Thursday, he will be visiting the President, whereas he will also hold a meeting with Mr. Venizelos where they will discuss the EU elections’ results and plan out any subsequent government moves.