Alexis Tsipras, snubbed a plea from his conservative rival to join a coalition government, as they both made a play for undecided voters six days ahead of an election.
Meimarakis was relentless in his attack on Tsipras about broken promises and the question of trust, while Tsipras, on the offensive, kept his composure and attempted to relate a vision for the country in these dark days of endless social and economic crisis.
In the final televised debate between the two political heavyweights before Sunday's ballot, New Democracy leader Vangelis Meimarakis said Greek voters sought the stability that would come if both parties worked together.
"We can have a national team not only in the governance of the country, but also a national negotiating team (concerning Greece's bailout)," he said.
But with the two parties neck-and-neck in opinion polls, former prime minister Tsipras said a coalition with New Democracy would be unnatural, echoing comments he made in an interview on Sunday.
"We have fundamental differences and as such, we cannot co-exist," he said. While it was prepared to ally with other, smaller parties if necessary, he believed SYRIZA would get close to winning an outright majority.
Both leaders admitted there were mistakes made by their respective parties, with Meimarakis saying his party has moved on and adapted to the new reality after the third bailout deal and Tsipras said that mistakes are the flip side of experience, quoting New Democracy's founder and former President of the Republic Konstantinos Karamanlis - and pointing out the credibility of his party, after fighting in Europe and domestically for the right of the people.
Meimarakis attempted to sound conciliatory in his approach to the day after the election, claiming that even a collaboration with SYRIZA is a possibility for the good of the country, while Tsipras insisted that the huge ideological differences between the two didn't allow for a coalition in the future.
Both leaders attempted to clarify the ideological gap between them. Meimarakis talked about Tsipras' ideological fanaticism against the private sector, while Tsipras clarified the diversity of their respective visions describing his own as pro-public sector participation in privatization and New Democracy's as a route to special interests.
Meimarakis gained a few points by wondering why exactly snap elections were called by Tsipras when he hadn't lost his majority in parliament, while Tsipras kept on message about the old versus the new. None of them offered any specific answers to issues such as migration, property taxes or reforms, posed by the six journalists, insisting on answering every little offensive comment by their respective opponents.
Meimarakis came through as natural (a gift), but impatient and overly offensive in his answers, while Tsipras appeared calm and composed (also a gift) and less on the defense than in the previous debate. So, the answer to the obvious question "who won the debate", is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak.
Either way, just like in the previous debate, viewers came out of this one non the wiser. They received no concrete policy pledges from the former PM and a vague "I can't promise anything specific and be accused of populism due to the circumstances" non-pledge from the conservative leader.
The sense on the streets (i.e. social media) after this 2.5 hour confrontation, is that the election is as open after this much anticipated debate, as it was before it.
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