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New Democracy Election Fiasco Leaves Greek Parliament Without Real Opposition Party

meimarakis_tsiprasA few days ago, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made a desperate plea for what he calls “national dialogue,” or essentially asked opposition parties to back him in passing the bills required by the bailout program.
The new bills to be tabled in parliament mean pension cuts, wage cuts, higher taxes, foreclosures, auctions and other evils the government now calls necessary. They are the same evils Tsipras was calling Greek people to revolt against when he was opposition leader less than a year ago.
With only 153 lawmakers to count on, the prime minister is not feeling very secure in his seat. That’s why he went to the president of the republic to ask him to mediate so that the opposition parties vote in favor of the upcoming measures and reforms. He stated this in interviews. He indirectly asked the other parties to cooperate, regardless of the fact that he never did so when he was opposition leader.
Is it possible that the prime minister reached the moment of truth? Did he realize that he would have to make his voters suffer going through the painful measures he once promised to eradicate with a single bill? He has already lost two lawmakers passing the measures that only protect 25 percent of homeowners. He has been booed by people when placing a wreath at the Athens Polytechnic on November 17, while some citizens expressed their love for the “people’s government” by pelting cups of coffee and bottles of water to the cabinet members present.
The delays in privatizations and, more importantly, in any kind of development policies show that the leftist government cannot overcome their political obsessions and prefer to leave everything in limbo than implement any policy that looks remotely capitalist.
One would think that the opposition would be ready to take advantage, as the inexperienced and seemingly inadequate government delays governing in the midst of the refugee and terrorism crises.
But New Democracy looks like they operate in a parallel universe. The election for president fiasco opened a can of worms. Instead of apologizing to their voters, the four candidates started a bitter blame game between them.
As if it wasn’t enough that there is no opposition party in parliament for two months now, the conservative party delays further the election of their leader, while at the same time they send a message that they are not at all united.
Instead of dealing with the botched election procedure as a technical problem, the four candidates did their best to turn it into a intra-party political problem. Their sticking to procedural details delays their election further, while the fact that some of the candidates want to have a public debate between them shows estrangement and lack of unity. At the same time, New Democracy lawmakers are divided into camps based on leader preference.
Meanwhile, the lack of opposition in parliament left the SYRIZA-ANEL government free to allow things that at other times would have brought people in the streets. For instance, Greek banks are sold to foreign interests at ridiculous prices, with the Greek state losing share majority along with a few billion euros.
The argument New Democracy had been using in the past few months — that the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition are inexperienced and inadequate — is now lost. A SYRIZA MEP tweeted that New Democracy cannot elect president, how can they expect to run the country?
The country has no opposition party at the moment. It may soon have no government as well. And at New Democracy they may still be looking for a computer company to count the ballots.

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