Main opposition PASOK expels lawmaker, drops to 32 seats
The PASOK main opposition Socialist party has expelled a lawmaker for making controversial statements, and is now down to 32 of Parliament’s 300 seats.
A party statement Monday said Lesvos lawmaker Panayiotis Paraskevaidis was being ejected for his “constant unacceptable statements.”
Paraskevaidis had recently been quoted as saying his party should cooperate “even with a dictatorial regime” if the alternative was for Greece to be left without a functioning government.
Opinion polls show that while governing center-right New Democracy would easily beat its left, populist, communist and far-right opponents were elections to be held presently, it would lack a big enough majority to govern alone. PASOK has been unwilling to signal it might help ND form a coalition or minority government, even if it had enough lawmakers to do so.
Parliament now has 27 independent lawmakers, the third-largest group after ND’s 156 and PASOK’s 32. SYRIZA follows at 25.
