Samaras to meet Venizelos on Friday

It's been a rough couple of days for the prome minister and the government vice president. The leaked conversations between former government secretary general Takis Baltakos and Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris has cast a huge shadow in the government's prospects, particularly given its bruised majority in parliament.

The two government partners will be meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the future of their partnership. Although few expect them to come out with a partnership dissolution agreement, political pundits will be en guard.

Both leaders are in serious trouble. The Prime Minister has yet to address the “Baltakos-gate” head on and persuade that his formerly closest political adviser was acting completely on his own when he was discussing political strategy with indicted neo-Nazis in parliament halls.

PASOK president Venizelos could arguably be in more serious trouble. With his party sliding into obscurity in the polls and European parliamentary elections just around the corner, he has to at least try to show the electorate that he is putting a foot down in a distinction (the one between democratic parties and “fascist gangs” like the GD) which he himself has been instrumental in drawing.

Mr Venizelos is also facing pressure from within, with members of his party and MPs, including former prime minister George Papandreou asking for the party to withdraw from the government, or at least push for a new person to be appointed as PM.

Mr Samaras today had a 30 minute conversation with American Vice President, Joe Biden about the Ukrainian issue and the stability of the area. But he knows he will have to deal with the pressure coming from the opposition, public opinion and even members of the moderate wing in his party. Plus he has to consider the possibility of more tapes or videos leaked from GD, as Baltakos himself suggested in a radio interview today.

In this interview, Baltakos attempted to offer a plausible explanation as to why he was talking political plans with an indicted neo-Nazi MP. He claimed he did it for “the good of the country and the 500,000 non-Nazi voters GD had in the last election”. He added that the PM was not aware of these conversations (plural) which were his doing alone “for the good of the country” and that he can't remember how many of these conversations took place, meaning there could be more intercepted ones coming out in the future.

The arguments Baltakos offered were naïve, to say the least. Given that in the video he is heard revealing information about his talks with the PM to Kasidiaris, even referring to Samaras with derogatory and offensive language, it's doubtful his excuses could persuade even the most ardent supporter of the New Democracy conservative party.