Coalition Government and Included Leaders

: As it had happened in the first debate last week which also included the leaders of the smaller parties elected in the previous parliament, Tsipras defended his seven-month government record requesting voters to give SYRIZA an outright majority in the new assembly to change Greece, according to Xinhua China. Responding to repeated calls of Meimarakis for the formation of the wider possible coalition government after the polls, he appeared confident that absolute majority is within reach for SYRIZA. The former Premier dismissed the idea of a grand coalition with the conservatives as "an unnatural alliance" due to fundamental differences in key issues. "There will either be a progressive government or a conservative government," Tsipras stressed, attempting to present SYRIZA as a new force that fights an old, corrupted status quo. Former Prime Minister and leader of the Radical a Left SYRIZA party Alexis Tsipras faced Evangelos Meimarakis, President of the conservative New Democracy party at the public broadcaster ERT, as all recent opinion surveys showed that the two parties were running neck and neck falling far short of gaining absolute majority in the next assembly. Meimarakis for his part noted that SYRIZA is not actually a new party in Greek politics and accused Tsipras of inaction in tackling corruption since the party assumed office in the January 25 general polls. He promised to "unblock" all major projects if he is elected Prime Minister on Sunday. "We want investments, but we expect investors to respect the laws," Tsipras replied when asked to comment on the protest of miners outside ERT premises during the debate. The conservative leader accused Tsipras and SYRIZA of breaking a long string of pledges made to Greek people before the previous elections and of causing more damage to an ailing economy that had started to recover. "Tsipras and his government pushed away investors," Meimarakis said, pointing to delays in the privatization of ports and airports. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.