SYRIZA's

Amidst a barrage of criticism over its lack of a comprehensive plan for dealing with the refugee migrant crisis, government spokesman Stelios Petsas maintained that there has been progress in correcting the deficiencies in SYRIZA's management of the crisis.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' petty partisan games with the constitutional amendment regarding the election in Parliament of the President of the Repblic have not persuaded even his own MPs.

The country is set to enter a new period of political uncertainty after what was seen as a strategic defeat for ruling SYRIZA with the rejection on Thursday by Parliament of its flagship proposal for the country's president to be elected directly by the people.

The parliamentary debate on which articles of the Greek Constitution will be amended in the parliamentary session after the next general election led to a battle royal between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis with mutual recriminations about exploiting the process of revising the country's basic law to achieve partisan electoral aims.

In what was seen as a tactical maneuver, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday that he will back incumbent President Prokopis Pavlopoulos in 2020 and called on New Democracy to do the same. 

Tsipras announced his intention to back Pavlopoulos for a second term during the debate in Parliament on the constitutional review. 

The spokesman for leftist opposition SYRIZA, Panos Skourletis, on Friday relayed to government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras' proposal for a televised debate with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.