Former SYRIZA minister Panousis says ND-SYRIZA 'grand coalition' only way to exit crisis

"Whichever of the large parties is left outside government will necessarily start to adopt anti-memorandum arguments and an anti-memorandum policy. Once again we will be confused, once again we will end up with an anti-memorandum Greece, once again we will have problems with the partners because no one will want to take on the cost of measures that they voted for but are obviously unpopular," Panousis pointed out, speaking to the ANA-MPA radio station 'Praktorio 104.9'.

"The basic line of exiting the memorandum cannot be carried out with half the Parliament opposed," he added.

Panousis, an academic and expert in criminology who had been brought into Tsipras' cabinet from outside the party, challenged anyone having a better solution to say what this might be. He also called for a government supported by the parties but "made up of people who don't have their minds on getting re-elected or the internal balances within the parties".

The former minister said that he will be voting for SYRIZA in the upcoming elections, since he believed the party must come first and "formulate rules for coexistence with the other parties, a national plan for managing our three-year obligations in terms of the memorandum and the country's national strategy for growth."

He also noted, however, that this would require SYRIZA to become a more mainstream party and that this shift was not reflected by the choice of candidates on the party's tickets. He repeated, however, that it would be ungrateful and politically wrong for him to support another party in the elections.