“We had the opportunity with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to exchange thoughts on critical issues like the developments in Syria and the deteriorating humanitarian situation there and the influx of refugees the conflict  has created.”

In this context, he asked the foreign minister for Greece to intervene, in order to receive greater assistance from the EU to host, refugees coming from the neighboring country, which should be given the opportunity to be repatriated when the crisis in the region is resolved. ”

As stated by the Foreign Minister, the meeting was particularly useful, as it is important to know the positions of SYRIZA in matters of foreign policy, but also to provide the opposition the information needed.

Tsipras also expressed his concerns for the “clouds of war over Iran”, which he said affect “our country directly”, to the extent that the tightening of relations with Israel not only in terms of  know-how and trade, “which we fully accept and would like to promote, but also in terms of military cooperation which is something that concern us, because no way should our country become part of the problem in the Middle East, but part of an investigative solution”.

Avramopoulos and Tsipras both agreed on the need for the country’s foreign policy to be based on national understanding.

There are currently 80,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Greek officials say they expect nearly 15,000 of them to try to enter Greece by the end of September. Greece recently stepped up its border patrols, transferring almost 1,900 border guards from other parts of the country to the northeastern region of Evros, which borders Turkey.

At the same time, local authorities on the islands of the northeastern Aegean are bracing for what is expected to be a growing wave of refugees from war-torn Syria, as measures to reduce the inflow of illegal immigrants via the Greek-Turkish border in the Evros region have put a greater strain on the porous coastlines of Greece’s islands, according to Kathimerini.

Local officials in the northeastern Aegean say that there has already been a significant increase in the number of refugees from Turkey. Their concern is that this wave will grow as the civil war in Syria escalates and that they are ill-equipped to deal with such a large influx.

On the other hand, it seems that today’s coalition is -as everybody says- Greece’s last chance to stay in the Eurozone. The fear factor, which was dominant throughout the pre election period and immediately after, worked well with citizens who voted as expected, marginally avoiding the experiment with political radicalism (‘call me Alexis’), and on the other hand giving a weak victory to ND party to force it to cooperate with what is left from the old centre-left.

Later on, government spin efforts replaced fear with hope, with FinMin arguing that we need to try a little bit harder to stay under the Eurozone umbrella, at a time when Europe is about to change. True, but again, not ours. Just like Mario Draghi’s recent intervention: Europe marked it as a new starting point, markets were somehow relieved and Greeks kept trying to figure out how, and if, they were benefited. Greeks know well deep inside that a pathetic -wait and see- stance will bring the country nowhere. Salvation -or, what foreign media keep calling bailout- strategy will depend on initiatives taken from within. So, the motto we should, perhaps, stick to is that the solution “is in our hands”.

Alexis Tsipras knows well that Antonis Samaras will play the troika game, take the heat and hope for some positive results when the boat starts turning, to feed new political talk towards re-election. To reach that, Samaras’ led coalition will have to go through hell; opinion polls will make things even worse.

Alexis Tsipras knows that when the slow Greek boat starts turning, his chances to attack will be numbered. By then he hopes to have a decent political rhetoric, along with the necessary professionalism to turn a wave into government.

Tsipras also knows that Samaras’ staffers are average, cabinet members are of the past, whilst the quotas the Premier had to take in from his coalition partners seem politically helpless. However, the Premier seems determined to save face, along with the reputation of his generation.

Things do not come easy though. Nearly 100 days after the elections, the government continues to staff key positions and is still trying to figure out “equivalent measures” to avoid horizontal cuts, a political bubble that troika wishes to put to rest next to the “renegotiation” rhetoric.

For those who can view Greece from a distance, what they see is from one hand troika (EC-ECB-IMF) people moving in high gear, pushing for the only thing Greeks can accomplish (namely withhold people’s money in the source) and from the other, the leftovers of the previous political system dragged in a battle 2 out of 3 of them appear unwilling to fight. Hence the differences: Antonis seems determined to fire at the enemy before dying in the barracks, Evangelos may eventually save his life as a disgraced HQ clerk, while Fotis is about to catch a stray bullet, while wandering disoriented in no man’s land.

Despite all, the future has presented itself. After the old generation manages to reach its redemption, new politicians (of a different sort) should come forward to take it from there. And here is the most important thing Tsipras knows. If his new competition is once again old school, he will prevail; big time.

Thus, for people to gain from political competition, common sense dictates that new ‘Tsiprases’ should appear to reposition Greek politics (hopefully closer to Europe) and move the country forward. But the process is going to be bloody.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of AlYunaniya.com

Voters face a stark dilemma as Conservative New Democracy and leftist SYRIZA are competing neck and neck for first place in the elections, offering opposite views on how to cope with the country’s economic crisis.

New Democracy wants to stick with Greece’s pledges for further cutbacks and reforms, although with revisions, and the International Monetary Fund so Greece can continue to receive bailout loans to repay its public debt and cover some of its spending.

SYRIZA has vowed to rip up Greece’s bailout agreements, also known as memorandum, and cancel the austerity measures, which have included deep spending cuts, as well as tax hikes and tough pension and salary cuts.

The last opinion polls published before a two-week pre-election ban showed the radical left Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras running neck and neck with the conservative New Democracy party of Antonis Samaras, which would grant the winning party an extra 50 seats in Parliament vital for forming a coalition government. Neither party is likely to win an outright majority.

Meanwhile, European leaders also weighed in on Saturday, urging Greeks to vote with their heads, Kathimerini writes.

The bailout would not be renegotiated, said Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, whose country’s wealth is necssary to support  its weaker partners in the eurozone, urging Greeks to sticks to their bailout commitments.

“That’s why it’s so important that the Greek elections preferably lead to a result in which those that will form a future government say: ‘yes, we will stick to the agreements’,” Merkel told a party conference of her Christian Democrats, Al Jazeera reports.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the group of eurozone finance ministers and prime minister of Luxembourg, warned there would be serious effects if SYRIZA secured victory.

Sunday’s vote is a rerun of a May 6 election that produced stalemate. No party is expected to win enough votes to secure a majority in parliament.

The first round of exit polls is due as soon as voting ends at 7 p.m. A second round of exit polls is expected about an hour later, according to Kathimerini. 

The first “safe” estimate based on actual votes counted is due at about 9.30 p.m.