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After three days of debate in parliament regarding the vote of confidence requested by the government and obtained by 155 votes "for", which took place in the conditions of the possibility of new early elections in light of the election of a new president, the political parties are at the antipodes, absolutely unable to converge on important issues affecting the country.

From the statements given in Parliament yesterday by the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the largest opposition party, follows the conclusion that there is no field of mutual understanding and that by next February the climate of conflict will be maintained in an attempt to mobilize not only MPs but also voters.

"Greece needs a new memorandum"

The Prime Minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras, speaks of the truths which some do not want to hear.

- In the budget for 2015, Greece will have zero financial deficit for the first time; now the interest on loans is being covered. In the third year since we have been in power we are leading the financial deficit to zero.

- After six years of recession recovery began, the rate of unemployment is decreasing and development in the coming years will be very strong. And all this will happen if forecasts for Europe are revised in a downward direction. Unemployment will fall below 23 percent next year and be less than 20 percent thereafter. Some do not want to hear all this.

- We are on the markets and taking loans at reasonable interest rates. The only thing that worries markets is the political risk. Through the vote of confidence we have strengthened stability and retained Greece on the path towards reforms and development.

- Debt has stopped declining nominally and will also start to decline as a percentage of GDP. Only the opposition denies this because they want to live in a parallel universe. Greece's debt is viable, markets say this, Klaus Rengling said this also, and soon creditors will say this as well.

- Greece does not need another memorandum, nor does it need another programme for emergency funding. We have the largest structural surplus in Europe. What we need to achieve is development and reforms. We don’t even need the money from the current memorandum.

"Parliamentary elections now and then presidential elections"

On his part, the leader of the main opposition party SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, said:

"You ask for trust from the parliament to continue your policy. In the evening, however, when the lights go out, everyone will understand that the trust will be far from the 180 members required by the constitution to elect a president. What will you do then? Will you continue with these hopeless tactics? Saying that you have 180 members, but hiding them. And all parties that make up the parliament, plus the two ruling parties declared their intention not to vote for president of the republic.

I am not talking only about SYRIZA. All parties from the democratic opposition, as they are what concern me, reach the same conclusion via a different path".

Tsipras added that this artificial number of MPs voting in favour of the government, is not sufficient to elect a president. The SYRIZA leader called for the government not to hold the country hostage in an extended four-month election climate, not to continue applying practices from 1965, not to hold the political system hostage of humiliating scenarios.

“The five-year effort can easily be destroyed in five days”

Evangelos Venizelos, PASOK leader and Deputy Prime Minister, speaking again of the "bilingualism" of SYRIZA, accused the opposition of "demagogic deception of the public", promising to create a wave of changes in Europe, while at the same time Alexis Tsipras arranges "menial" meetings with the Pope and Jörg  Asmussen, "turning a blind eye" to the interests they were expecting to gain at the expense of Greece.

Although, according to Venizelos, the proposals of the opposition do not withstand comparison with the programme of the government, there are, of course, "desperate people", who believe they have nothing to lose and who are attracted by the image of Alexis Tsipras in the role of Andreas Papandreou. These citizens "have much to lose – the security in which they live", said the president of PASOK.