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Centrist River party eyes third place in coming Greek general elections

Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The newly founded centrist River (Potami) party led by popular TV presenter Stavros Theodorakis eyes the third place in the upcoming Jan. 25 general elections in Greece, after the Radical Left SYRIZA party and the incumbent conservatives, according to the latest opinion surveys.

With pollsters seeing unlikely an outright parliamentary majority for whoever wins the elections, the party which was launched last spring on a platform inspired by liberalism and social democracy could become the kingmaker on Jan. 25.

"We want to change everything without destroying the country" is the main slogan of the River party.

"New Democracy and SYRIZA should talk with the third political party in the country for all these that we can change together," Theodorakis said during a pre-election gathering at a Piraeus port district on Thursday evening.

"As they avoid the debate with us, we continue the open dialogue with people to exchange ideas," he added.

Seeking the golden rule between the two major rivals Potami promotes reforms to breathe new life in a debt-wrecked country after the end of the bailout this year without risking a clash with international lenders which could have severe repercussions for Greece and the euro zone, according to analysts.

Theodorakis is critical of the New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who he accuses of scaremongering over a Grexit if SYRIZA wins the elections, as well as of anti-austerity SYRIZA's leader Alexis Tsipras who he accuses of populism and doubletalk.

However he has repeatedly stressed that the River intends to cooperate with all forces to the benefit of Greece after the elections.

Theodorakis on the other hand has been criticized of not having clear positions over the economy and all major issues.

In the May 2014 elections for the European parliament by distinguishing itself from the traditional parties Potami won 6.6 percent of votes and two seats.

The party will garner the same percentage in the national elections, according to the most recent opinion poll by Kappa Research polling firm, following SYRIZA which leads with about 28 percent and the New Democracy party which ranks second with approximately 25.5 percent.

The far-right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) party follows with 5.4 percent, the socialists of PASOK, Samaras's junior coalition partner with 5.2 percent and the Greek Communist Party of Greece with 5 percent. Endit