SYRIZA: Support for Nikitas Kaklamanis but not government policy

His “yes” has something to do with the person of the candidate Speaker of the House, as the party of the main opposition appreciates him and respect him particularly. This is why, at yesterday’s meeting of the parliamentary group’s Bureau, the officials involved in this body distinguished the person from the policy pursued by the government on many issues. It is characteristic that in his decision to support Nikitas Kaklamanis the party says that “SYRIZA P.S. respects the Republic and the institutions as opposed to Mr. Mitsotakis who circumvents and implements them in his interests. CORVERSE In the same institutional way we will also operate in the election of Speaker of Parliament, voting in favour of the majority proposal. The new president must be president of the entire House and not only of the ruling party.” Earlier, however, the spokesperson, George Karameros, had given the political mark with which Syriza moved: “Mr. Mitsotakis tried, betting on the sympathy of the world and the political staff of the country in the person of Mr.Kaklamanis, to hide his divisive choice in proposing an acting MP for President of the Republic. I am not standing on Mr. Tasoula’s resume, public opinion and polls are doing an evaluation from what I have seen. We are not getting into this conversation.” CORVERSE However, there was no co-option with the New Left since the parliamentary group of Alexis Haritsi’s party unanimously decided to vote in favour by linking this decision to the overall situation in the country. Yesterday, however, Alexis Tsipras met with the candidate President of the Republic, Luca Katseli, as in the past there were partners and friends. The former Prime Minister stressed that Ms. Katseli “is a politician who enjoys broad acceptance and respect and beyond the progressive space from which she comes, while her candidacy sends the message of unity, social cohesion, and trust in the institutions, which today we need more than ever.” The country’s housing problem Meanwhile, while Socrates Famellos continues meetings with the institutional actors of the country – today Wednesday (22.1.2025) he will meet with the Governor of the Bank of Greece, Giannis Stournara, President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce Giannis Hatzitheodosiou and President of GSEVEY George Kavvathas – SYRIZA is also attempting to highlight the housing issue by pointing out that with the policy pursued by the government it actually strengthens the cartel of banks. Specializing in housing, G. Karameros also stressed: “There is the issue of social housing. Portugal has allocated 2.7 billion euros for 26,000 social housing homes. Not with a loan, not to make a new generation of red loans, not with the perimeter of criteria, i.e. low-paid and not having to get a low-interest loan and how do you predict that after some years they will be able to repay them? In Spain they used 1.6 billion for 20,000 homes, even in Italy 1 billion and 10,000 homes. A total of seven European Union countries will draw more than EUR 5.5 billion from the Recovery Fund in order to increase housing supply. Not to stimulate demand, because loans automatically mean that real estate prices are rising, resulting in banks being won, owners or contractors coming out won who will sell some homes, but not those who really need and have no shelter. This is clear and is another sample of bank aid.” He added that: “All the advertisements I hear on radio these days are for the “Home 2” program, which means banks get money, they put advertising in the media. This is not bad for the media, but they lead public opinion to a perception that the government is making moves to solve the housing, which is directly linked to the demographic, while actually strengthening the bank cartel. That is why Socrates Famellus goes to the Competition Committee, which has to do not only with banks, but also with ships, and with food, and with energy, and all that has brought us, according to the Eurostat index, to the last place of purchasing power.”