Dead end - We are going to elections

The meeting of leaders under Karolos Papoulias concluded without any agreement on a government.

We can even go to the polls tomorrow and as announced by the President of the Republic, there will be a meeting to appoint the PM.

According to information, there was tension many times during the two-hour meeting between the political leaders. Trusted sources refer to a “quarrel” between Mr. Venizelos and Mr. Tsipras.

Intense controversy was caused when Panos Kammenos asked the rest of the political leaders to support the government that will implement the program of the Independent Greeks party.

Indicative of the dramatic character of the meeting was the President’s statement that we cannot leave the meeting without a government.

Evangelos Venizelos

Speaking from the PASOK offices, Mr. Venizelos stated that “unfortunately the country is heading to the polls again in a few days, under very bad conditions because some put their party interests first”.

“The Greek people on the 6th of May told us that they do not want elections again, that they want a coalition government. We asked for a government of national unity with the participation of all pro-European forces”.

“We made a great effort to convince SYRIZA and DIMAR to proceed to a coalition which will alleviate the pressure on the nation and give hope to Greeks. We believed that there was a minimum basis of understanding, but this was not feasible due to the refusal of SYRIZA and Mr. Kouvelis' insistence”.

“It is any citizen’s duty to read the minutes of the meeting. There was arrogance and adventurism”, stated Venizelos, adding that the country can find its way.

“We will fight from a basis unfavorable to PASOK. We should have not reached this point, we are coerced, we aim for the best and for God’s sake let’s not go for the worst”, concluded Mr. Venizelos.

Fotis Kouvelis.

In his speech after the meeting of political leaders, Fotis Kouvelis unleashed an attack against SYRIZA.

“I submitted, once more, a proposal for the establishment of an ecumenical government. This government should include ND, SYRIZA, DIMAR and PASOK. Unfortunately the proposal was not accepted”, stated Mr. Kouvelis.

“I supported that in the framework of the ecumenical government the parties mentioned should take part, disengage from the memorandum and keep the country in the Eurozone”, while he also spoke of a written programmatic agreement which would bind everyone, but once more he said the proposal was not accepted.

“There was no proposal of a government of personalities or technocrats”, added Mr. Kouvelis, underlining that DIMAR made every possible move “in order to not have the country go to new elections”.

DIMAR did all it could with its 6.11% to not go to new elections, but some political forces had already chosen to proceed to elections, stated the president of DIMAR and called all Greeks to judge and make their own conclusions from now on.

Panos Kammenos

“We submitted the seven positions of the Independent Greeks”, stated in his speech the president of Independent Greeks, Mr. Panos Kammenos.

Mr. Kammenos underlined that during the meeting he mentioned national issues which, as he stated, “were unfortunately not discussed”.

“We mentioned the NATO summit, the need to immediately freeze the Memorandum’s terms and the huge problems that exist in the market with liquidity”, he stated.

Furthermore “We had no response form ND or PASOK unfortunately. Mr. Venizelos agreed with the seven points, except for expunging the debt”, he added.

At the same time he stated that all proposals were blocked by ND and PASOK which - as he said - “wants to continue to serve the interests of the Memorandum”.

“The Independent Greeks, having presented clear proposals, will continue to fight the good fight, always saying what is forever true. We will not change our views under any pressure”, stated Mr. Kammenos.