Polls show both parties are tied in a deadheat, on course to gain around a quarter of the popular vote.
Advertisement
Greeks will head to the polls for the third time this year on Sunday to elect a government that will lead the country as it implements the bailout deal that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s left-wing government signed in August.
But neither candidate during the debate offered any solution to Greece’s intractable refugee and migrant problem, which nevertheless will loom large in the final week of the campaign.
Nevertheless, Meimarakis says he will invite Tsipras to form a unity government and a multi-party team to negotiate with the country’s creditors on how to lift the country out of crisis.
Meimarakis stated Syriza was welcome to hitch his New Democracy celebration in an alliance, as Greeks sought the steadiness that may come if each events – operating neck-and-neck in opinion polls – labored collectively.
Syriza and ND both received about 26 percent support in a poll published last Sunday, with Syriza only inching ahead with 26.7 percent against ND’s 26.2 percent.
Monday’s debate was broadcast live on seven state and private television channels, with Greeks tuning in to watch the exchange between the two main debates. “The question is who will be more convincing”.
“We made an effort to make it more lively”, said a member of the all-party committee that decided the terms of Monday’s debate, in which the leaders will fire questions at each other as well as facing them from reporters and the moderator.
The extreme right Golden Dawn, which originally began as a neo-Nazi group, is vying for third place.
“Without the referendum, we would not have needed 25 billion euros just for the banks”, Meimarakis told Tsipras in a televised debate on September 7.
Despite being accused by many Greeks of betrayal over his acceptance of the tough reforms demanded by creditors despite voters issuing a resounding “no” to austerity in a July referendum, he took aim at New Democracy’s policies.
But in spite of this relative impasse, Tsipras rejected a suggestion from Meimarakis that they could work together in government as “unnatural”.
Advertisement
Regarding investments and employment, Meimarakis said his party is ready to unblock all major projects.
