Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

NO CONFIDENCE: The political situation took another serious turn yesterday when Georgios Rallis and Panayiotis Papaligouras issued a joint statement announcing that 15 deputies from the ruling National Radical Union (ERE) had declared that they were revoking their confidence in the government and had authorized the two former ministers, Rallis and Papaligouras, to submit their declarations to the Parliament speaker. According to press sources, Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis is certain now to submit a recommendation to the king to dissolve Parliament. The joint statement by Rallis and Papaligouras is as follows: “It is not our intention to break up the party to which we belong. However, we disagree with the manner in which the government is handling the electoral issue and with its draft electoral law. We therefore revoke our confidence in the government since it insists, even after our resignations, on tabling the bill which we consider not to be in the nation’s interest.” Meanwhile, the 15 ERE deputies yesterday signed a similar statement. They included Andreas Apostolidis, Athanasios Gelestathis, Themistocles Ballas, Paris Liaroutsos and Andreas Derdemezis.