SYRIZA Against SYRIZA On Issue For President of the Republic

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is planning to announce the government's candidate for President of the Republic on Tuesday, February 17 at SYRIZA's parliamentary group meeting. According to government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis, following the announcement the parliamentary voting for the election of the new Greek President will take place on Wednesday. Indeed, Sakellaridis might of said that the announcement was delayed due to the critical Eurogroup session on Monday, however it appears that objections within SYRIZA have caused the delay.

Press reports claim that the announcement was initially scheduled to be made on Sunday evening, but was postponed for Tuesday because not all of SYRIZA was keen on the candidacy of European Commissioner and veteran New Democracy MP Dimitris Avramopoulos.

More specifically, Avramopoulos was considered the likeliest candidate for the position, but there has been major resistance within SYRIZA, which is not limited to the party’s “internal opposition”, the Left Platform. It is reported that European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker also appears to be negative towards the candidacy of Avramopoulos.

On Sunday afternoon Tsipras spoke with Independent Greeks (ANEL) leader Panos Kammenos, who is rumored to have proposed New Democracy MP Dora Bakoyanni.

Tsipras later spoke with the Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis. A senior government source reported that there was “a long way to go” before concluding.

Given the fragile relations between Athens and Brussels, Tsipras is presently considering other options, primarily from the center-right, but his MPs feel that the President should either come from the Left.