POTAMI party leader: We won’t join anti-Europe gov’t coalition

Centrist POTAMI eyes third place in upcoming election

POTAMI party leader Stavros Theodorakis emphasized on Wednesday that his recently established centrist party will not join any coalition in a “government of anti-Europeans. ”

Speaking at a press conference before Sunday’s snap general election in the country, Theodorakis stressed: “We choose to side with the sides using reason; the sides with a program and plan; we will not follow those who make things up as they go along and threaten the country’s position … We must heal society’s wounds, not by hammering away at them, but prudently, and within a European framework”.

Theodorakis’ party is currently posting opinion poll figures that place it in either fourth or third place, meaning that if neither of the two parties that finish ahead of it, either ruling New Democracy or main opposition SYRIZA, wins an outright majority of parliament deputies, POTAMI will probably be recruited to join a coalition government.

To win a vote of confidence, a government must receive 150+1 votes of the 300 in Greece’s parliament. The “first-party-past-the-post” receives a 50-MP “bonus”, which however, may not be enough to exceed 150, depending on what percentage of the vote the election-winning party gains, how many political parties exceed 3-percent of the vote to enter Parliament, and, what percentage of the vote parties that did not enter parliament accumulate.

Theodorakis, a well-known television journalist and current affairs program host for nearly 20 years, hinted at what his party, if successful, may demand. “There are sectors, like justice and education, where people outside the party system should lead”.

He also added that New Democracy and PASOK (the current coalition government partners) “hurt the poor, when they should have ‘hurt’ the parasitic systems feeding on the state.”