Elections for ND party secretary put off
Elections for the post of party secretary for conservative New Democracy, which leads the country?s tripartite coalition, will not be held on Thursday as scheduled, state television channel Net quoted party sources as saying on Tuesday as pressure grows on Greece to meet its commitment to international creditors.
A day before officials start arriving in Athens for talks with the government on Greece’s economic program and its efforts to rustle together 11.5 billion euros in savings, ND sources indicated that internal affairs would be put on the back burner for the time being. It remained unclear when the elections for the post of party secretary would take place.
Originally there had been plans for the election to be put off until the fall but concerns about possible protests by unions ahead of the Thessaloniki International Fair in September and planned privatizations prompted a decision to resolve the matter sooner rather than later.
The most prominent of the ND cadres expected to announce their candidacies for the job — previously held by Andreas Lykourentzos, who is now health minister — are former Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis, who is also an ex-minister, and Nikos Nikolopoulos, the former deputy labor minister who resigned earlier this month, citing the government?s failure to push for the renegotiation of the country?s debt deal as his reason.
