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live The motion of no confidence against Samaras will be voted at midnight

10 November 2013 / 20:11:16  GRReporter
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After three days of debate in Parliament, the motion of no confidence submitted by SYRIZA against the government of Antonis Samaras is going to find its answer. At midnight, a roll-call vote will start. The extreme left and the extreme right-wing in the Greek Parliament have united against the government. Lawmakers of SYRIZA, the Communist Party of Greece, the Independent Greeks party and Golden Dawn will support the vote of no confidence. Fotis Kouvelis, leader of the democratic left party, DIMAR and former coalition partner in the government of Samaras urged lawmakers to abstain from voting. Centrist lawmakers from both parties - New Democracy and PASOK are expected to vote in support of the government.

The majority of New Democracy deputies determined the vote of no confidence as "an incomprehensible and meaningless response" by the largest opposition party SYRIZA. And government sources even claimed that the vote of no confidence will serve as a centripetal force and further unite the coalition between New Democracy and PASOK. In turn, Fotis Kouvelis is trying to convince voters that "abstention" is a nationally responsible position - on the one hand, it does not agree with the policy of Samaras, and on the other hand it defies Tsipras’s provocations.

In fact, the vote of no confidence in Parliament is far from the most important job of the government, which is currently in hard negotiations with creditors. Today, the meeting of Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras with representatives of the supervisory Troika lasted for three and a half hours and there was no result. Paul Thompson, Matthias Morse and Klaus Masuch left the Ministry of Finance without giving statements and government sources are talking about a heavy atmosphere full of suspicion. The Greek government and creditors have to agree about the budget framework for 2014. However, creditors are expecting a financial gap of 2.9 billion euro, while the Greek government is insisting that there will be a surplus.

Another meeting of Stournaras with representatives of creditors has been scheduled for Tuesday morning. On Thursday, he and they will travel to Brussels for the meeting of Eurogroup, where the future of the financial stabilization programme for Greece will be discussed. It is not clear whether representatives of creditors will return to Athens after the Eurogroup meeting in order to continue negotiations or if the decision on the future of the programme will be taken at a political level.

While debates on the vote are continuing in Parliament, 3,000 supporters of SYRIZA gathered in Syntagma Square in support of the party for which they have voted in its attempt to overthrow the government. The underground station at Syntagma Square is closed, as well as the streets in the centre of Athens.

To be continued.

Tags: motion of no confidence government of Antonis Samaras talks with creditors voting in parliament opposition
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