EnetEnglish.gr, 17:54 Tuesday 27 May 2014
Potami to sit with Pasok in European parliament
Newcomer's two MEPs to participate in Socialists & Democrats group
Potami MEPs will be 'collaborating independents' within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group, which is set to be the second largest in the European parliament
Stavros Theodorakis, who set up the Potami (River) party in February (Photo: ANA-MPA)
The two MEPs elected with the Potami party in Sunday’s elections to the European Parliament will sit with same social democratic group as Pasok, the party announced on Tuesday.
Potami, which sprung to life in earlier this year, said its two representatives would be collaborating independents within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group, which is set to be the second largest in the parliament.
It said the decision was reached at a meeting of the 42 candidates its fielded and the party's founder Stavros Theodorakis. The party felt that the S&D group would enhance its opportunities for action at European level and that S&D has pledged to prioritise tackling recession and unemployment in Greece and the European south.
Potami also said that Europe needed a counterweight to conservative forces at this time and that the S&D is in a position to play this role.
The conservative EPP is projected to take 213 seats in the parliament, some 23 more than the S&D.
Before the election, there was speculation that Potami would join the liberal Alde group, led by Guy Verhofstadt.
Although the results are pending official confirmation, George Grammatikakis, professor emeritus of physics of the University of Crete, and Miltos Kyrkos, the son of Leonidas Kyrkos, one of the leading postwar leaders of Greek left, will be Potami’s two MEPs.
EnetEnglish, ANA-MPA