Customary pleasantries and platitudes heard during meetings between the Greek president and visiting political leaders were absent on Thursday, as hard-charging leftist leader Panagiotis Lafazanis demanded that Prokopis Pavlopoulos convene a meeting of political leaders instead of relying on … phone calls.
Lafazanis, the leader of the anti-bailout Popular Unity party that emerged from ruling SYRIZA’s split, handed back a mandate to form a government to Greek President Pavlopoulos. Prospects for a new government from the current Parliament are near zero, meaning another visit to the ballot boxes for Greek citizens next month.
“The greatest unconstitutional and anti-democratic deviations are taken in the name of upholding the constitution. I’m not aware of the constitution referring to telephone contacts; it cites an actual meeting of leaders. If we replace this with telephone contacts we’re making a mistake.
Pavlopoulos, a veteran conservative lawmaker who has held numerous ministerial posts in the political career before assuming the ceremonial position, appeared annoyed, closing the on-camera conversation with a curt “Thank you very much.”