After the SYRIZA government was confirmed by Parliament last night, government representatives flew to Brussels for the extraordinary Eurogroup meeting to discuss a possible bridge loan until August.
Meanwhile in Greece, the factor that brought SYRIZA to power was the failure to elect a President. After three consecutive failures to elect former European CommissionerStavros Dimas, the government collapsed.
The new government’s first order of business is thus to elect a new President of the Hellenic Republic.
Several names have been dominating the press, one has been prevalent: Dimitris Avramopoulos, the currently European Commissioner for Migration, Home affairs, and Citizenship.
While former PM of GreeceKonstantinos Karamanlos has reportedly turned down the position, Avramopoulos has kept his distance from the process, as much as possible. Indeed,Avramopoulos has gone from front-runnerto bargaining chip.
The crucial point to remember ahead of today’s Eurogroup meetingis that Avramopoulos constitutes Tsipras’ most important bargaining asset against European Commission PresidentJean-Claude Juncker, who would swallow hard at the idea of a representative of the European Left (GUE/NGL) in his college of Commissioners.
Indeed, the prize of having a European Commissioner of his own, is enticing for Tsipras, and we can only conclude that if Avramopoulos does not become the next Greek President, a compromise will have been reached that will be reflected in the deals to come.
It is worth adding that one of Avramopoulos successors, MEPDimitrios Papadimouloshas had strong confrontations with the Commission President, and continues totakea very strong stance against the EU's "blackmail" of Greece.
Meanwhile, the last few days have seen radio silence on the matter.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/avramopoulos-tsipras-most-important-bargaining-chip