Greek PM Tsipras Satisfied with Meeting Over Refugees, Opposition Leaders Differ

By Philip Chrysopoulos -  Mar 5, 2016

Greek Reporter

Greek_political_leaderGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told associates that he is satisfied with the outcome of the meeting between political leaders on the refugee crisis, but the opposition leaders seem to differ in opinion.

Several negative statements from the opposition side leaked after the 8-hour meeting, presided by President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

In the meeting, only the minimum consensus required was achieved, as opposition leaders had several different proposals. Nevertheless, the prime minister will appear at Monday’s European Union summit with a proposal to tackle the refugee crisis, in which, the government and opposition will have a common national line to follow.

According to sources from the Maximos Mansion there is satisfaction for the joint communiqué as they claim that the opposition accepted the government plan to be presented at the summit.

However, at New Democracy headquarters they claim that Tsipras had a hard time with the opposition leaders and his position has weakened. In the main opposition party circles they say that the prime minister received very harsh criticism at the meeting.

The conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis believes that Tsipras received so much pressure from the opposition that he finally accepted positions that go against his leftist ideology.

At the same time, the Democratic Coalition, composed of PASOK and DIMAR, insists on a national unity government. “We need a national unity government,” PASOK chief Fofi Gennimata said.

“The national line, in order to be effective, requires a strong and capable government to implement it. The country needs a government of national unity, of all pro-Europe forces,” said the head of the Democratic Coalition.

Gennimata also asked that the meeting should be recorded, saying that since the last time political leaders met and discussed measures, there was communication but the government has not implemented what had been communicated in the least.