Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to call a meeting with party leaders and ask them to vote in favor of the unpopular security fund reforms required.
The coalition government majority has dwindled down to 153 votes after the vote on the bailout program prior actions required last week. The PASOK-ANEL coalition lost two MPs and they are afraid that some of their lawmakers may abstain from the vote on the unpopular reforms that include pension cuts and a higher retirement age.
The parliament has to vote on the 2016 state budget by December 5, while the next batch of prior actions required by the bailout program has to pass in parliament by December 15. Other than the security fund reform, another thorny issue is farmer taxation.
According to sources from Maximos Mansion, the prime minister was to recommend to the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos to call a meeting of party leaders. However, the failure of New Democracy, the main opposition party, to elect president on Sunday pushes the meeting back.
Thereby, Tsipras is considering to have personal meetings with each party leader and ask them to back the government in the difficult ballot.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos briefed SYRIZA’s Political Secretariat on the insurance fund reforms. The government plan will also be discussed tomorrow by the economic policy council, presided by Government Vice President Yiannis Dragasakis.
According to labor ministry sources, the minister wishes to resolve the security funds issue within 2015 and not postpone the most difficult parts for next year. It is estimated that by the end of the week, the prime minister will announce the government position on the issue. Otherwise there will be a new cabinet meeting next week.
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