By Yannis Anifantis,

Inconclusive – as expected – was the first vote for the election of the President of the Republic in the Parliament, as none of the four candidates managed to gather 200 votes, as required in the first two rounds of the process.

The former President of the Parliament, Konstantinos Tasoulasa proposal by New Democracy, received a total of 160 positive votes, receiving the support of four independent MPs (Antonis Samaras, Marios Salmas, Pavlos Sarakis, Haris Katsivardas) beyond those of the governing majority. One of the paradoxes of the vote, although it was predetermined by the intentions of the parliamentary groups, was the primacy of the candidacy of Lucas Katseli against him Tassos Giannitsi – proposed by Harilaou Trikoupi – although PASOK has a larger number of MPs than Koumoundourou.

In particular, the Louka Katseli collected 40 votes from SYRIZA, New Left and independent MPs: Areti Papaioannou, Athena Linou and Yannis Sarakiotis. PASOK’s proposal was limited to 34 in favor, receiving the support of the independents Baran Burhan, Petrou Pappa and Rania Thraskia.

Konstantinos Kyriakou received 14 votes from Niki and the 4 independents from the Spartans: Giorgos Manousos, Yiannis Dimitrokallis, Dionysis Valtogiannis, Konstantinos Floros. However, the “present” emerged as a second force, as a total of 49 MPs from the KKE, the Hellenic Solution, the Freedom Movement, the independent MPs from the Democracy Movement and Michalis Khourdakis did not support any candidate. In total, 297 MPs voted while 3 were absent (Giorgos Aspiotis, Michalis Gavgiotakis, Iota Poulos).

The second vote, on Friday January 31, is expected to be fruitless, as is the third (which requires 180 votes), with the “white smoke” coming out of the Plenary on Wednesday, February 12, i.e. in the 4th vote, subject to the gathering of 151 positive votes.