Former foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, one of main opposition New Democracy party’s top cadres, was quoted over the weekend as predicting early elections in Greece over the upcoming period.


Bakoyannis, the older sister of ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and daughter of former prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis, made the prediction in an interview carried in a weekly Athens newspaper.

“Mr. (Alexis) Tsipras (the leftist prime minister), true to his favorite tactic, has two simultaneous strategies, waiting to see which one of the two he’ll support … their (government) desire is to bump back elections as long as possible, but because this desire comes in direct opposition to the current reality, he (Tsipras) is preparing for the possibility of (snap) election,” Bakoyannis was quoted as saying.

She referred to growing popular discontent in the wake of pension cuts, even for low-income pensioners, as heavy tax rates slapped on self-employed professionals and wage-earners.