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The mystery around who the government will nominate as the next president is expected to be resolved In the coming days, perhaps during the presentation of the programme statement by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

"No one has been proposed yet"

This is what government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said before SKAI TV. On the one hand, he denied the rumours about the probing of Kostas Karamanlis ("No one has been proposed yet", Sakellaridis said), but on the other he made it clear that Dimitris Avramopoulos is still on the list of candidates.

Reactions against Avramopoulos’ candidacy

Three SYRIZA MPs have already rushed to voice their objections against the possible candidacies of Dimitris Avramopoulos and Kostas Karamanlis for the highest public office.

In an Internet publication, the MP from Thessaloniki Joanna Gaitani, argued that these rumours should stop as they weaken the stature of the radical left. Gaitani also pointed out that any ‘coexistence’ with a president supporting the memoranda, like Avramopoulos, will cause confusion amidst the social base of the party. Another Thessaloniki MP, Yannis Amanatidis, came up with a similar position. He told ΤV-100 that he disagreed with an eventual Avramopoulos candidacy, although he also argued that SYRIZA’s candidate "should not be someone who may only unite one single party…".

Dimitris Kodelas, an MP from Argolis, in turn commented on Facebook that "it is better to scrap the discussion about Avramopoulos’ candidacy for president of the country altogether", stressing that "the will of the people for change implies a president who is not connected with the Memoranda and the country’s previous slide towards bankruptcy, a president enjoying broad public approval, a president who will not sign legislative acts, a president showing that this country is turning a new page and wishes to restore its dignity."

It should be noted that on Saturday the I Avgi daily also published an article by Angelos Mantadakis, member of SYRIZA’s Central Committee, entitled, Avramopoulos for President? No, Thanks!...

Meanwhile, according to To Vima, reliable sources have indicated that senior SYRIZA officials related to the Holy Community, running Athos, have in recent days been holding intensive talks with the Archbishop of the Orthodox Church in Albania, aimed at persuading him to accept Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ proposal to nominate him for the post of president.

The Archbishop of Albania is a prominent cleric and a dignified representative of the Orthodox Church. Apart from that, Archbishop Anastasios is a larger-than-life personality, with stature in various circles. Obviously, Tsipras’ team believe the Archbishop will inject some special symbolism in the presidential nomination, as a figure of national unity.

According to the same sources, the talks have failed to yield any positive results as yet. Anastasios has invariably referred to his flock in Albania and servicing the public good in his current position.

However, Tsipras’ people have not yet given up hope to talk the Archbishop into accepting the offer.

Nevertheless, regardless of his final response, it is an intriguing fact that the prime minister's team seems to have moved away from the idea of nominating a purely political personality for the presidency.

According to iefimerida.gr, they have so far proposed three candidates for prime minister: Kostas Gavras, an internationally acclaimed film director, Konstantinos Tsoukalas, a left-leaning intellectual, and Laokratis Vasis, a historical figure for the left, believed to be Alexis Tsipras’ personal guru.