Greece’s possible post-election scenarios

Now that Syriza has signed up to a bailout and ditched its left faction, Potami-type supporters have fewer quibbles about voting for Tsipras.

Chair of Confederal Group of the European United Left Gabriele Zimmer will also address the crowd showing her support for the former prime minister.

Nevertheless, Meimarakis says he will invite Tsipras to form a unity government and a multi-party team to negotiate with Greece’s creditors on how to lift the country out of crisis.

Both leftist Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras and conservative New Democracy rival Vangelis Meimarakis, who are running neck-and-neck in opinion polls, have said that if elected they will push on with the fiscal reforms demanded by Greece’s creditors. Very much part of the party’s old guard, the former defence minister and parliamentary speaker is presenting himself as a safe pair of hands who can bring the country back to stability.

Sunday’s election battle is the second referendum for the future of Greece, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday during an election rally in the town of Patras.

Voted into office on an anti-austerity platform, Tsipras forced Sunday’s election by resigning in August, trying to quell a rebellion in his party and win a stronger mandate to push through tax hikes and spending cuts agreed under the 86 billion euro ($97.3 billion) bailout he initially opposed.

“It is a hard battle that will be given vote by vote until the last moment”, New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis on Thursday said in an interview with ANA-MPA.

The party was supposed to pick a successor through a congress but with snap elections called for September 20, it was decided to leave him in temporary control. Far-right Golden Dawn ranked third with 6.2 per cent.

These people will be highly targeted in the last ditch efforts by both New Democracy and Syriza and are likely to swing the vote in favor of one or the other coming out victorious.

In early July, as Greece was starved of funds and struggling to pay the salaries and pensions of its public servants, Tsipras called a referendum, saying it was for Greeks to decide whether they wanted to shoulder more of the “humiliation and suffering” of another bailout. New Democracy wants tax incentives to attract investors, while Syriza sees taxes as a tool to redistribute wealth.

The poll showed the Independent Greeks party, the junior partner in the previous coalition government, barely making it into parliament with support at the 3.0 percent entry threshold.