Nikos Filis

Government sources said that the negotiations with the Brussels Group are continuing as usual following the return of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras from Brussels.

“If our political plan needs to be reinvigorated in the people’s view, so be it. We’re aiming for compromise (with creditors / lenders / partners etc.) If this agreement needs a popular mandate, we’re not afraid of it,” SYRIZA’s parliamentary spokesman said on Friday, essentially leaving open the possibility of early elections.

During a stormy session in Parliament on Friday, with vehement exchanges between coalition lawmakers and the opposition, the government rejected an objection by conservative New Democracy against a government decree that obliges state bodies and local authorities to transfer their cash reserves to the Bank of Greece.

The approval of $US500 mln to Lockheed Martin for the upgrading of five naval aircraft exposed by Proto Thema on Sunday has raised a number of questions and reactions by Greek opposition parties as well as members of the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government.

Proto Thema's exclusive weekend report of a government decision to directly award a 500-million-dollar tender for the modernization of five maritime surveillance planes continued to cause political reverberations this week.

The office of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday issued a statement noting that the views on sitins expressed in an article by Alternate Citizens' Protection Minister Yiannis Panousis are his own and do not represent those of the government.

The name of EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was brandied as the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government's proposal for presidential candidate however the announcement that was to have taken place on Sunday was postponed.