Movement for Change

Centre-Left Movement for Change European Parliament candidate and psychiatrist Meni Malliori has blasted SYRIZA for exploiting the Novartis scandal to destroy its opponents and went as far as to suggest that the judicial probe of ten politicians for possible bribe-taking was ordered by the government.

Political tensions over the alleged scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis peaked on Thursday when ruling SYRIZA accused opposition New Democracy and the centrist Movement for Change (KINAL) of seeking to cover up ostensible offenses by politicians aligned with them. 

With one of its most prominent MPs, Andreas Loverdos, about to testify as a suspect in the Novartis case if his parliamentary immunity is lifted, the centre-left Movement for Change is charging that the entire affair is a conspiracy staged jointly by SYRIZA and the Karamanlis faction of New Democracy.

Greek MPs are next Friday to decide whether to lift the immunity of former health minister Andreas Loverdos, an MP with Movement for Change (formerly PASOK), who has been implicated in an alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis.

The government usually acts as if it were the hegemonic and dominant political force of the country.

The hegemony they are touting is not real. Citizens exhibit and reveal a different story in all their actions ahead of upcoming local, European Parliament, and national elections.

Ahead of May's European Parliament elections, former socialist prime minister Costas Simitis has lambasted the ruling SYRIZA party as opportunistic and for siding with the right and far-right of the political spectrum to gain power.

New Democracy is holding a strong lead over SYRIZA, according to an opinion poll carried out by Pulse for Skai TV which puts the conservative opposition 10 percentage points ahead of the ruling leftists.

The poll, conducted on a sample of 1,452 people last week, found that ND would garner 32.5 percent of the vote if snap polls were held now compared to 22.5 percent for SYRIZA.

New Democracy is holding a strong lead over SYRIZA, according to an opinion poll carried out by Pulse for Skai TV which puts the conservative opposition 10 percentage points ahead of the ruling leftists.

The poll, conducted on a sample of 1,452 people last week, found that ND would garner 32.5 percent of the vote if snap polls were held now compared to 22.5 percent for SYRIZA.

SYRIZA is trailing New Democracy by 11 percentage points, according to a new survey carried out by Pulse for Skai, with 32.5 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the conservative opposition compared to 21.5 percent for the incumbent leftists.

New Democracy leads SYRIZA by 6.5 percentage points (by extrapolation after excluding those who will abstain or cast spoilt ballots and apportioning the undecided voters proportionately to the parties decided respondents will vote for) - compared to a 6.2 percentage-point spread in December - in a new survey released today and conducted by the Alco polling company for private Open television.