Off-the-cuff remarks on Thursday by former main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Vangelis Meimarakis, who told reporters in Parliament that his party’s pledge to vote down possible new austerity measures is nothing but "empty threats", provided a brief distraction from ongoing tight-lipped negotiations with creditors in Athens.
Meimarakis is reported to have made the quip in reference to the possibility that the leftist Tsipras government will eventually relent to creditors’ demands for "precautionary measures" and bring the package to Parliament for ratification. Creditors are demanding that measures be enacted now in order to ensure that fiscal measures are achieved after 2018 – when the current bailout ends in August of that year.
The current coalition government would probably not face a problem with passing the new measures, given that it fields a thin 153-majority in the legislature, and failure to pass the measures could be considered a no-confidence vote.
With ruling SYRIZA trailing ND by double-digit figures in all mainstream opinion polls over the recent period, coalition deputies are expected "grit their teeth" and pass more austerity if it reaches Parliament's floor.
Meimarakis, who lost an internal party election to current center-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said ND’s votes mattered in August 2015, when the then beleaguered and fractured first Tsipras government brought its own third bailout to Parliament for ratification.
Meimarakis said rejection of the third memorandum would have risked the country’s place in the Eurozone and EU.
At the same time, the one-time ND leader, who expresses the traditional populist bloc in New Democracy, compared to the more liberal and pro-reform-minded Mitsotakis, also criticized PM Alexis Tsipras.
He charged that the latter has never accepted his proposal for a bipartisan national negotiation team to conduct talks with creditors.
In reaction to extensive coverage of Meimarakis’ statements, especially by pro-government media, a ND MP reminded that the former again emphasized that the only solution for the country at present is snap elections.
