Greek parties accuse each other of fear-mongering and pushing country toward disaster

Athens, 14 December 2014 (MIA) - With vote in Parliament to elect the new President set to begin next week, Greek parties are also re-positioning themselves for the early general elections that will follow, if the vote fails.

Greek ruling New Democracy party announced that its coalition with Social - Democrat PASOK will be over if Parliament fails to elect the new President, MIA correspondent in Athens reports. These two parties have interchanged in Greek politics for decades, but now PASOK is reduced to the lower tier of parties, outdone by the far left SYRIZA coalition. Andreas Papamimikos, secretary for the Conservative New Democracy (ND), said that he still hopes Parliament will be able to elect ND candidate Stavros Dimas for President, and that ND leader Andonis Samaras will remain as Prime Minister with PASOK in tow.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has also warned his followers that the country is hanging on a string, and could easily suffer absolute disaster. Speaking at a party gathering in Kostur, Venizelos reminded his supporters of the prospect of early elections, which will likely see the PASOK share of the Parliament shrink dramatically in favor of SYRIZA.

On his part, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, who is trying to have the vote fail and to spark early elections, blamed Prime Minister Samaras of stoking fear over the possible SYRIZA Government. "The countdown on the ruling coalition and its disastrous policy has already began. Samaras is the Prime Minister of chaos", Tsipras said. Samaras has pointed to the rout of shares at the Athens stock exchange and the unfinished negotiations with the Troika of European and IMF creditors, as reasons not to vote for SYRIZA, which has promised to cancel many of the cost cutting measures and introduce new Government spending not approved by the EU, which has been paying to keep Greece afloat for years.

Independent Greeks, a small rightist party that built around unsatisfied former ND and far right members, announced that it's group in the Parliament will not support Dimas for President. Party leader Panos Kammenos said that the position will not change during the three rounds of voting, in which Dimas needs to get the approval of 200, and then 180 representatives. The coalition currently relies on 155 votes, and if the 12 Independent Greeks representatives follow the party line, options become very limited for Samaras, Dimas and Venizelos.