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Drasi and Dimiourgia Xana (Recreate Greece) have announced they will join forces ahead of the June 17 elections. The decision, which was first revealed on micro-blogging service Twitter late Sunday, came with an invitation to a press conference at the Intercontinental hotel on Tuesday at 1 p.m. The two liberal parties both failed to clear the three percent threshold needed to enter Parliament in the last vote on May 6. The announcement puts to rest speculation that Drasi leader, former minister Stefanos Manos, was in talks with New Democracy as the Conservative party seeks to build a big, center-right alliance. Other reports had speculated that Drasi was in talks to cooperate with PASOK socialists. Led by young advertizer Thanos Tzimeros, newly-formed Dimiourgia Xana won 2.1 percent in the last election. Its tough line on immigration – the party among other things proposed “special” labor zones for immigrant workers – had been seen as a thorn in negotiations with the reformist Drasi party. Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance party, led by former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, was on Monday expected to announce its cooperation with New Democracy. Bakoyannis was expelled from New Democracy for voting in favor of the first EU-IMF bailout despite instructions from the man that beat her to the party leadership, Antonis Samaras, to the contrary. | 
