The provisional president of New Democracy Evangelos Meimarakis claimed that he is open to forming a coalition with Alexis Tsipras in an effort to keep Greece within the Eurozone, in an interview for Bloomberg on Sunday.

I believe in consensus and cooperation” he argued, adding that his party has “proven throughout these years that when it’s for the good of the country, for safeguarding its place in the euro area, we’re willing to cooperate”.

The ND leader stressed that European leaders are wrong to invest their hopes in Tsipras, argued that “even if [he] wins the election, which he will not, he will face similar internal dissent problems each time he brings a law implementing the bailout agreement”. Furthermore “the danger of Grexit hasn’t passed, and if we end up in an unstable situation, this danger will become more imminent”.

Meimarakis noted that it would be “disastrous” to hold elections every six months and accused Tsipras of being a “pampered kid” who went “crying” for a bailout agreement, adding that “it’s one thing to be a good kid, and quite another to be a statesman”.