Greek government satisfied after winning the confidence vote

The Greek government appears satisfied with the three-day debate of the no-confidence motion in parliament, saying PM Samaras won the impressions over his opponent Alexis Tsipras, while the vote strengthened the intraparty clustering of New Democracy.

Maximos Mansion says SYRIZA lost the impressions inside and outside of parliament. The discussion highlighted the contradictions in its policy and its cohesion problems. Outside of parliament it was proven that the opposition is able to generate significant pressure let alone overthrow the current coalition. The Greek government believes it won valuable time until the European elections and took a breather before the difficult tasks ahead as the negotiation with the Troika which will probably be extended as the two sides can’t seem to be able to reach a compromising solution.

In the circumstances created by negotiations the coalition has a series of tough parliamentary battles as the bill for the taxation of real estate continues to cause friction in the parliamentary groups of ND and PASOK, and the deregulation of the auctions on first residences.

Moreover, the Greek government has to bring the 2014-2017 mid-term and until November 21 must file the 2014 budget with the non-horizontal fiscal measures. From the beginning of next year regardless whether the discussion with Troika for the 2014 measures has closed or not, the Greek side will have to start the negotiations about the fiscal gap for the comprehensive settlement of the 310 billion euros debt.

Samaras has already shifted to the end of 2014 the release from Troika as well as the recovery of the Greek economy. It is critical for him to succeed, if not with a final settlement, at least a commitment of his European partners for the total debt amount before the European elections. An ND parliamentarian said that if Samaras does not achieve certain things for the Greek society, the evening of the European elections will be a disaster. This view is shared by others as well, which shows that the calmness in the blue wing is superficial.

The Greek government keeps is on a stand-by mode believing that many things will depend on the image that will prevail in Europe and whether there will be a shift in its developmental direction by strengthening the weak economies of the South. Samaras believes that the landscape will begin to clear up after the government formation in Germany, however, he thinks the conditions are now ripe for Europe to make the decisive step and will meet on November 22 in Berlin with Merkel.