Greek party leaders' debate heats up election campaign

Greece's snap election campaign heats up Wednesday with a televised debate between the main party leaders, the first since 2009.

With just 11 days until the country heads to the polls, seven leaders including former leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras and conservative challenger Vangelis Meimarakis will cross swords in a debate which will be shown at 1800 GMT on state broadcaster ERT.

Tsipras is hoping to pull forward from a neck-and-neck race between his radical leftwing Syriza party and Meimarakis' New Democracy party.

In addition to a challenge from the right, the 41-year-old will also be under pressure from Popular Unity, a breakaway party made up of former Syriza cadres who rebelled when Tsipras's government signed an unpopular third EU bailout in July.

The leaders will field questions on the economy, unemployment, health and education, social policy, migration policy, and foreign policy and defence.
For the first time, they will then be able to briefly ask each other questions in the final segment of the session -- around midnight.

Though limited in scope, the question-and-answer format is seen as a badly-needed upgrade to a procedure characterised for years by boring monologues.

"We have practically never seen journalists really corner political leaders and expose weak points and contradictions in their claims," writer Christoforos Kasdaglis told Efimerida ton Syntakton daily.

- Farmers fuming -

In addition to Greece's ongoing economic crisis and the bailout, migration is turning into a key campaign issue with the Greek islands struggling with a huge influx of refugees from war-torn Syria, in addition to economic migrants from Afhanistan, Pakistan and other poor nations.

Although past debates changed little in the electoral outcome, this campaign is different, analysts say.
Neither Syriza nor New Democracy look likely to secure an outright majority, so they will need to work with smaller parties who have much to gain from tonight's exposure.

"Few voters switch because of a debate, but the current political system is quite fluid," political scientist Elias Tsaousakis told the daily.

"It will be crucial for the small parties," agreed pollster Takis Theodorikakos.

"The election campaign is so brief that (the debate) is an excellent opportunity for these leaders to make a good impression," he added.

The Tsipras government resigned on August 20 and after a futile attempt by New Democracy's Meimarakis to form a unity government, with elections set for September 20.

The campaign will be short as Greece in October must adopt a batch of additional reforms tied to its multi-billion EU bailout that was ratified by the parliament in August.
Chief among them is a new tax regime for farmers that scraps a number of benefits, making them a key dissatisfied group to watch in the election.

The small centrist To Potami party, headed by a former journalist, has been seen as a possible ally for New Democracy while Tsipras has hinted he could work with the Pasok socialists.

Tsipras is also open to cooperation with former coalition partner the nationalist Independent Greeks, but polls suggest the party might fail to enter parliament.

The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, whose leaders are the subject of a massive investigation following the murder of a leftist rapper in 2013, has been excluded from the debate.

However, the hardline party stands to benefit from anger towards the government mainly from Aegean islanders who say this year's tourism season was hurt by failure to manage the refugee influx.

Another debate is expected to be held between Tsipras and Meimarakis next week.
Source: AFP