Popular Unity

Ex-minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, the leader of the newly formed far-left Popular Unity party, which emerged from a split with SYRIZA, used harsh language on Monday against his former comrade and recently resigned PM Alexis Tsipras.

According to the latest poll conducted by the firm Alco for ‘Proto Thema’, the domestic political landscape is undergoing a deep shift compared to only seven months ago, as the profile of outgoing PM Alexis Tsipras has all but disintegrated in the wake of the third bailout plan his government negotiated, signed and delivered to Parliament for quick ratification.

The latest act in Greek political drama being played out over the split between SYRIZA into the “pro-memorandum” camp and the newly formed “anti-bailout” and far-leftist Popular Unity party included the word … “kolotoumba” on Sunday.

Political developments in Greece ahead of next month’s snap election – the third time voters will head to the ballot box in 2015! – turned surreal over the weekend, with one top SYRIZA MP threatening to commit … suicide, while former leftist comrades continued their “civil war” over the airwaves.

Addressing a partisan audience during a national SYRIZA pre-election conference, Saturday former Greek PM Alexis Tsipras appeared certain that despite the huge difficulties Greece had left the toughest part behind it.

Customary pleasantries and platitudes heard during meetings between the Greek president and visiting political leaders were absent on Thursday, as hard-charging leftist leader Panagiotis Lafazanis demanded that Prokopis Pavlopoulos convene a meeting of political leaders instead of relying on … phone calls.

The pre-election season — yet again — continued to rev up on Wednesday as outgoing PM Alexis Tsipras took to the airwaves in a live television interview to defend his leftist government, his decision to sign a third memorandum bailout and the split within ruling SYRIZA party, amongst others.

President of the Greek Parliament Zoe Konstantopouolou is in the final stages of creating her own political party, according to sources. The party will reportedly collaborate with the recently formed anti-memorandum formation ‘Popular Unity’ set up by former SYRIZA Minister and MP Panayiotis Lafazanis.

Political developments in crisis-plagued and still bailout-dependent Greece continued on Tuesday, given that snap elections are now foreseen for late September, or at the latest, in the first week of October.

One of the first opinion poll to see the light of day since snap elections appeared as a more-or-less given gives ruling SYRIZA a lead of two percentage points over main opposition New Democracy party, 24 percent to 22 percent.
The poll was conducted for the firm Interview and commissioned by the provincial television channel Vergina.