“Greek and foreign organisations for human rights but also, more recently, the mayor of Acharnes have reported that conditions at the Amygdaleza concentration camp are inhuman and humiliating, a fact made worse by the high temperatures,” the party said.

SYRIZA called for the immediate launch of an investigation to determine whether migrants were beaten when police units entered the facility to quell the riot .

The party also called for the immediate closure of camps and their replacement with hospitality centres for migrants and refugees needing international protection.

Meanwhile, the Greek police has denied that conditions for detained migrants at the Amygdaleza  center in Athens were unsuitable after a riot broke out on Saturday and 10 immigrants escaped from the facility, according to Kathimerini.

“We take all the necessary measures so holding conditions are respectable and that there is no chance of escape,” police spokesman Christos Parthenis told Mega TV.

Riot police were dispatched on Saturday to put down a riot at Greece’s main migrant detention camp where detainees hurled stones at officers and set fire to their living quarters, authorities said, AFP writes.

Violent riots broke out at the centre late on Saturday night and continued until the early hours of Sunday morning.

Television footage showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where some 1,200 mainly Asian migrants are kept under police guard.

Amygdaleza is one of several detention camps set up since last year to assist in the repatriation of thousands of undocumented migrants.

The police spokesman said rioting began when the detainees were told that their maximum stay in the camp would be extended to 18 months from a year previously.

According to AMNA, during a head count on Sunday, ten of the foreign nationals being held at the facility were found to be missing.

The revision of the multi-bill by the parliamentary Finance Committee revealed disagreements between MPs from the coalition parties, which, if not dealt with corrections in certain Articles, are able to rock the fragile government majority of 155 MPs.

ND ministers are in consultations with ND and PASOK MPs, to agree on improvements and corrections to bend any objections that might arise on the multi-bill. They expect to include adjustments that may be voted by DIMAR MPs as well, tovima.gr writes.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met with government vice-president and PASOK president Evangelos Venizelos, and agreed on a series of specific corrections in the multi-bill. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis were present at the meeting.

Among others, the bill contains public administration ministry amendments introducing sweeping public sector reforms, such as the ‘mobility’ scheme that will see thousands of public-sector workers suspended on reduced pay, until they are either transferred to another position or laid off. There are also drastic changes relating to tax law and new mechanisms for deciding the minimum wage, AMNA informs.

Meanwhile, a group of SYRIZA MPs yesterday hung a banner over the parapet above the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Parliament, which wrote: “Fire the government. ‘No’ to sackings in the private and public sector,” Kathimerini informs.

The banner was hung as thousands of Greeks marched on Syntagma Square to protest a multi-bill that is currently under debate in Parliament and which foresees, among other measures, the streamlining of the public sector. The SYRIZA MPs’ move was met by applause and cheers from the protesters, whom they went on to join the rally.

43% of respondents believe that SYRIZA would be the winner if elections were imminent, as against 38.4% who believe the same thing for ND. 46.6% say Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is best for the job, while 31.8% say Alexis Tsipras could do it better.

In terms of the popularity of political leaders, Antonis Samaras leads with 42.3%, followed by Fotis Kouvelis (42.1%), Alexis Tsipras (37.3%), Panos Kammenos (29.4 %), Aleka Papariga (26.3%), Evangelos Venizelos (19.5%) and Nikos Michaloliakos (16.6%).

Previous weekend, a survey by company Metrisi for Parapolitika newspaper presents SYRIZA leading in terms of voting intention with a narrow 0.4 percentage points.

A survey of Pulse RC for 6-Days weekly, suggests SYRIZA gathers 20% as against 19.5% of ND. Golden Dawn comes third with 12%, followed by PASOK 7%, Communist Party and Independent Greeks both 5% respectively and DIMAR 3.5%. 5.5% of respondents say they would vote for “another party”, while obscure vote reaches 10%. Neutral vote and abstinence reach 12.5%.

According to protothema.gr, yesterday evening, and after many consultations on Greek Constitution and parliamentary Standing Orders, the majority (ND, PASOK, DIMAR) decided that the process be done in one sitting with 3 separate votes -one for each proposal- and a total of 7 polls.

The coalition has proposed that only former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou be probed in connection with the handling of the Lagarde list following the revelation by prosecutors last month that the names of three of his relatives were removed from the list, Kathimerini writes.

SYRIZA wants Papaconstantinou’s successor Evangelos Venizelos, who leads PASOK, to be investigated along with the former. And the two smaller opposition parties, Independent Greeks and the Golden Dawn want former premiers George Papandreou and Lucas Papademos to be probed too. It is expected that, for each of the votes, MPs will be given ballot papers with the names of all four politicians and the charges they would face.

The participation of MPs in all 3 votes is not mandatory, but New Democracy says “we will participate to the end. There is no question of withdrawal.”

The process is expected to will begin at 10 am and the voting is expected at 6 pm.

The political frenzy surrounding the Lagarde list affair has resulted in limiting the parliamentary discussion to the process, to increasing or decreasing the number of ballot boxes and votes and losing the actual substance which is placing the blame where blame is due, political analysts have suggested.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said that “it is inconceivable that this was decided in the meeting of the three political leaders. The smooth functioning of parliament is being undermined and essentially we have a procedure that removes the secrecy of the vote. This has never happened before in the Greek parliament and reveals panic. Venizelos is self-incriminating himself by asking Samaras for protection. But at the same time he becomes his hostage.” Venizelos, on the other hand insists that “the perpetrator of this conspiracy against PASOK” is the main opposition party.

Finally, late yesterday tovima.gr wrote that SYRIZA is examining the possibility of withdrawing from the voting process if the majority insisted on its proposal for setting up seven polls.

This tactic, SYRIZA people maintain, waves the secrecy of the vote, in a way ‘protecting Mr. Venizelos, who main opposition would like to see investigated about his responsibility regarding the Lagarde list affair.

The multi-bill was voted shortly after midnight yesterday, with 153 ‘yes’, 128 ‘no’, while 18 MPs kept a neutral stance, voting ‘present’. One MP abstained from the vote.

The vote, however, came at a cost for the coalition as it lost several MPs, Kathimerini writes. PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos ejected six lawmakers from his party for voting against the package. This included former minister Costas Skandalidis, who was rumored to be mounting a leadership challenge. The move reduces the number of PASOK lawmakers to 27. One MP was ejected from New Democracy, reducing the conservative party’s tally of deputies to 126.

Coalition party Democratic left MPs voted ‘present’ yesterday; the party said it would back the 2013 budget in a vote on Sunday. Parliament will vote again on the 2013 budget, which provides

Addressing Parliament a few hours before the vote, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appealed to MPs to back the package, noting that Greece’s future in the Eurozone was at stake, Kathimerini writes. “Today we are voting on whether we stay in euro or we return to isolation,” he said. Samaras admitted that cuts to salaries and pensions were unfair but insisted that they would be the last and any “future adjustments” would be limited to curbing tax evasion and waste. He said the changes being pursued by his government constituted “a revolution.”

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos struck a similar note, saying that Greece had two options. “One is dramatically difficult, the other total disaster,” he said. The Socialist leader lashed out at the leader of main opposition, accusing him of “investing in the country’s political death” by calling for new elections.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras repeated demands for snap polls, noting that the coalition had reneged on its promises. Tsipras said the government’s efforts to secure an extension for fiscal adjustment were redundant. “The only extension we need is for the rope with which we will hang ourselves.”

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis defended his party’s opposition to changes to labour laws. “Some insist that labour reforms are a secondary issue. That is not so. Labor laws are a road map for Greece after the crisis.” “We don’t want to be part of rebuilding the country after a collapse,” he said.

Between 70,000 and 100,000 people gathered outside Parliament from about 6 p.m. to protest ahead of the vote. The peaceful protest was broken up later when rioters clashed with police. Molotov cocktails were thrown and officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Attica police have banned all demonstrations in specific areas in downtown Athens today. Syntagma Square and Omonoia Square are not included in the ban. The police issued a statement that any public gatherings or marches would be banned between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. today. It said the decision was being taken in the interests of public safety and the city’s ‘socioeconomic life,’ Kathimerini informs. More than 7,000 police officers are to be placed on duty, including riot police, snipers, navy seals, port officers, various speedboats and a helicopter.

Labour unions in the public and private sector GSEE and ADEDY have called a three-hour work stoppage and a rally in Athens to protest against the Merkel visit. SYRIZA has encouraged its supporters to take part in the protest and vent their dissatisfaction with the austerity measures being implemented in Greece.

At 1 pm a rally will take place in Syntagma Square by GSEE-ADEDY against “the ongoing anti-worker, anti-social and recessionary government policies and the troika.” Also, there will be a pan-Attica work stoppage from 12 pm to 3 pm in all public services. PAME will hold a protest rally against “the new barbaric measures and the blackmail by the EU, the government and the capital” in Omonoia Square at 1 pm. Municipal workers (POE-OTA) announced its participation in the pan-Attica work stoppage from 12 pm until the end of shift, and in the rally in Syntagma Square. Independent Greeks party has announced a protest rally outside the German embassy at 6 pm.

According to protothema.gr, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has a difficult ten days ahead of him where he will have try and catch up to the deadlines for the release of the tranche of EUR 31.5 billion in November.

Further to the symbolism that the German leadership supports the Greek effort, the government expects one statement that will act as stabilizer within the country but mainly abroad and in the international markets.

The government believes that a successful visit from Merkel will prepare the climate for Samaras to put the issue of the loan installment disbursement and the question of extension at the summit on October 18 in order to finalize it in an urgent meeting of the Eurogroup and implement it within November.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Athens Tuesday at 12.00. She will meet with President Karolos Papoulias for about half an hour and then visit Maximos Mansion (2 p.m.) for a meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. A joint news conference will follow.

According to Kathimerini, some 7,000 police officers are going to be placed on duty for the visit. Police officers will be brought in from outside Athens as the government steps up security measures for the chancellor’s first trip to Greece since 2007. Greek media reported that the German embassy and the Goethe Institute will receive additional protection.

At the same time, Greece’s two largest unions, GSEE and ADEDY, have called for a demonstration in front of the Finance Ministry in central Athens at 6 p.m. on Monday. The unions said they want to express their opposition to the austerity measures being negotiated by the government and the troika. The unions have also called a three-hour work stoppage from noon on Tuesday to coincide with the visit of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Meanwhile, SYRIZA has encouraged its supporters to take part in the protest and vent their dissatisfaction with the austerity measures being implemented in Greece. Independent Greeks party has also called for a separate rally outside the German embassy in Athens (a human chain to be formed around the building as a symbolic protest). Members of the Communist Party-affiliated union, PAME, will hold a separate demonstration at 1 p.m., at Omonia Square.

Relations between Greece and Europe’s Germany have been strained, with Merkel blamed in Athens for imposing austerity at all costs and the Greeks criticised in Berlin for not fulfilling their obligations.

On Sunday, government and opposition parties described the chancellor’s visit to Greece as a chance to show solidarity and recognition of its efforts.

Merkel’s trip to Athens is “an act of recognition for the Greek government which is under great pressure with its reform policy,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted on Sunday that Merkel’s visit to Athens did not mean that the disbursement of Greece’s next bailout tranche was a given.

“Greece must fulfill its obligations for the next tranche to be paid,” said Schaeuble.

“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

Current government coalition has been a possibility even before the votes were counted on the night of June 17. And as most analysts admit, elections were won due to fear tactics explored by old politics. Samaras, Venizelos and Kouvelis, after failing to agree in May, they got a second chance in June to form a government that should be willing to sacrifice itself to save the country.

In troika’s mind, there was only one path: to follow the Papademos’ government way. However, this was something Greek voters pledged the new government to avoid. When they heard the right-wing rhetoric built around the ‘MoU re-negotiation’ concept, they thought they did it. When Antonis Samaras promised to renegotiate the infamous Memorandum, voters saw an opportunity to combine austerity relief with the conservative, safer approach of ND. So they ditched the radical vote, doing Alexis Tsipras a favor, who, in reality, hoped to spend sometime in the opposition before getting serious with the country’s core politics.

By voting for old politics, Greeks decided to stay in familiar waters and refrain from exploring the uncertainty of the new. Besides, a 3-year austerity made people weaker, placing them closer to the indifference threshold.

Unfortunately or not, voters were spared with the technicalities. Pre-election rhetoric was based on the magic word of ‘re-negotiation’; a handful of columnists and politicians who really explained the fallacy were swamped by partisan juxtaposition. On election night, the new Prime Minister already abandoned the strong campaign word and started talking about ‘amendments’ that would be put into effect sometime during the 4-year period of governance and, most importantly, they would be received as a ‘bonus’ for playing the predetermined austerity cards right.

This is how a government can screw up political communication strategy (if any) overnight. Hardcore Samaras’ associates will probably say that communication is not that important, since what matters is real structural changes. Wrong. In times of crisis, people are disoriented. If you do not package your politics right, you are finished, especially in Greece, and particularly when you are a conservative leader running a coalition scheme supported by the socialists and the left.

From the moment the coalition is once again messing around with pensions, salaries and social benefits (namely horizontal measures) the pistol is cocked and the trigger is about to be pressed. Is people’s new disappointment enough to break a government? Probably not, but if the opposition manages to give meaningful words to social discontent, then breaking a link would be enough to unlock the administration and take it down; not noisily on the streets of Athens, but in the chambers of strategic politics.

The survival of the government depends on a really weak link held by PASOK leadership and this weak link is about to crack for a variety of reasons.

First of all, despite all the laws and measures passed in the past, most people consider the attack on household income a fresh piece of government policy. Being under the bankruptcy threat is no longer a strong argument; it was burned out during the Papandreou years.

The government’s vagueness about the new austerity measures continues the fear tactics, making things even worse. This alienates voters even further from the old political system, whose leftovers were used to form today’s government coalition. In simple terms, those who initiated fear and presented themselves as citizens’ protectors quickly failed on their promises and once more engaged fear as a tool to bail themselves out of the pressure.

When you need cash fast, is there any other alternative than cut spending from the source? Probably not, but why lie to the people? Was it the result of amateur political spinning or a failure of leadership to assess reality?

And this brings us to coalition’s inner politics. Old PASOK and Venizelos are in a down slope (sources say that a new formation is under way by key PASOK people) and Kouvelis is already experiencing an identity crisis and is in no position to play a role without the intermediary socialist link. This could crack the government in no time.

But still, a triggering event is required to make things roll that should be about the people (and not about partisan relations) and would put the coalition in a real unity test. In my view, this grassroots event is already scheduled in the political agenda for late August or early September and has nothing to do with troika’s wises.

It will be genuinely about the people and for the people.

This is the new draft bill for the relief of over-indebted households from loan obligations, tabled by SYRIZA to be discussed when the Parliament returns from the summer break.

Tsipras’ political argument is simple and involves hundreds of thousands of households that saw their budgets flattened by the crisis, due to unemployment or massive reduction of income. This policy was included in Antonis Samaras’ speeches during the pre-election period, but nothing is heard ever since.

The technical argument is that the banks are making up the losses from bad loans through their recapitalization from the Credit Stability Fund. At the same time, the banks continue to demand the repayment of the delayed installments, regardless of the fact that those loans have been classified as bad debts and are taken into account by the recapitalization.

In plain talk, those who will disagree with the bill would sound like asking Greek people to pay the banks twice for financial management failures of the past: first, via national borrowing for recapitalization, and second, from their own pockets for bad personal loans.

So, who is going to disagree with Tsipras’ proposal and on what grounds? In terms of political communication, this move is an absolute winner. It could rule the agenda and meddle beautifully with the new austerity measures the coalition government is about to announce; furthermore, it corners the coalition government politically, and challenges MPs (through a catalogue name vote) on an individual as well as collective level.

Conspiracy advocates could say that this is planned between the Premier and the main opposition. If this is not the case, New Democracy will have to react, PASOK and Democratic Left will have to take sides; MPs individually will have to do the same. This could prove to be a unique moment in Greek politics, gathering an across the board agreement, or the trigger in question, ending up being a win-win for the centre left.

It could also make Antonis Samaras the Prime Minister serving the shortest term in modern Greek history and turn Alexis Tsipras into the youngest one, ever.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of Alyunaniya.com