The government is balancing on a taut rope – Two-party coalition, ND with PASOK?
DIMAR is driven out of the government coalition. The party is expected to withdraw its ministers and move towards a vote of tolerance towards the government, after the “shipwreck” at the political leaders’ meeting on Thursday evening, about the closing down of ERT. A new DIMAR meeting will be held today at 10:30.
“Nobody wants an election, nobody wants an absence of government”, stated Antonis Samaras in the early morning hours, saying that Kouveli’s proposal about public radiotelevision equals a return to the “sinful past of ERT”, while, on the other hand, Evangelos Venizelos “bravely” accepted the solution proposed by the government, based on the Council of the State decision.
Fotis Kouvelis came to the appointment with Antonis Samaras, insisting on the re-functioning of public television, with all the employees that used to work for ERT, while the Central Committee of PASOK had authorised Evangelos Venizelos to handle on his own the ERT issue, insisting on the immediate restitution of public radiotelevision.
After the meeting at Maximou (the Prime Minister’s office) was discontinued, Fotis Kouvelis blamed the Prime Minister for the dead-end, charging his office with a certain political choice of denying the essence of the three party cooperation within the government framework, underlining that the issue of public radiotelevision is not about norms and procedures, but about democratic legality.
An issue emerged, of political stability of the country and government coherence, stated Evangelos Venizelos, who repeated that the three-party coalition government must continue. He also repeated that PASOK is not afraid of an election, although he estimated that the citizens do not wish for an early call to the polls.