Tsipras to unveil presidential candidate on Tuesday

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will not announce his party’s candidate for president until Tuesday, it was revealed late on Sunday.

Although an announcement had been expected on Sunday, government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis said that Tsipras would wait until Monday’s Eurogroup is out of the way before he reveals to SYRIZA MPs who he will nominate to succeed President Karolos Papoulias.

European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos is the favorite to be nominated but it is believed that SYRIZA’s left wing is not happy with the choice.

Tsipras’s coalition partner, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said that he suggested ex-Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis should be put forward.

Sakellaridis said that after the naming of the candidate on Tuesday, the first round of voting to elect a new president would begin on Wednesday.