Parliament President Nikos Voutsis on Sunday informed reporters that he intends to recommend that the debate on a vote of confidence in the government begin on Tuesday afternoon and end with a vote on Wednesday, during an emergency meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the Hellenic Parliament on Monday morning.
Voutsis announced that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has sent him a letter informing him that he intends to ask Parliament to reaffirm its confidence in the government, in accordance with articles 84 of the constitution and article 141 of parliament regulations, asking him to launch the relevant procedures at once.
The process cannot begin until two full days after the prime minister sends the relevant request to the parliament president, so the start of the debate cannot begin before late on Tuesday afternoon. Since the debate cannot last longer than three days, Voutsis will recommend that it be concluded in two, so that it can end on Wednesday night with a roll-call vote.
Pointing out that the state budget for 2019 was passed just a month earlier, Voutsis said that a debate on all issues was not necessary.
Voutsis said that Parliament will continue normal operations until the debate begins, with a draft education bill coming to be discussed in the plenary on Monday. He indicated, however, that planned discussion on an amendment concerning Lockheed Martin and offsets for an upgrade of F-16s might be postponed due to changes at the helm of the defence ministry.