Greek President To Lead Talks For National Salvation Govt.

Karolos Papoulias

Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Saturday is preparing to hold talks with the leaders of the parties that scored in the last parliamentary elections last weekend, in an attempt to create an emergency government after the problems revisit the Greek economy.

Last Sunday Greek population voted against the parties which backed the bailout program and the austerity measures, making it impossible for the parties which are now represented in the parliament to form a government.

The move of president Papoulias comes after a third attempt this week to build a coalition failed as Socialist PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos did not succeed in convincing Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras to form a government.

As a consequence, Venizelos rejected the idea of renewed elections, considering that nothing else could come out of them, and added that he would speak to the president hoping that “in his presence” everybody thinks clearer and more maturely.

The president of Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry Constantine Michalos said that he had hopes a government would emerge of these negotiations and that a second set of elections would not be called for June 10 or 17, because, in his own words, Greeks could have a government by then but they wouldn’t have a country anymore as it would be torn apart by the economic problems.

His dim perspective seem to be built on hard facts such as the fact that the political instability brought the Athenian stock exchange to its lowest in 20 years, causing euro to sink to the lowest since January.

The political situation has raised the possibility that Greek economy sink again in default and the country leave the eurozone and return to drahma, as the bailout solution could fail to stabilize the economy.

It is expected that the president of Greece press the political parties to agree to a government of national salvation, but experts think it is unlikely to succeed, and the process could last for days.

Venizelos has agreed to form a coalition with center-right New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras but they need a third party to complete the percentage in order to launch a government, and none of the other parliamentary parties want to associate with them, because they are considered by the population as the primary responsible for the dramatic situation Greece is going through.

Earlier in the week, New Democracy attempted to form the government and failed and so did the Syriza left-wing bloc, which came second in the election. Syriza rejects the bailout agreement which has brought many social problems and refuses to accept to offer the support to the parties which had promised to uphold the bailout agreement no matter who came to power.

The leaders of Syriza argue that the rejection of the austerity measures was decided by the people of Greece, who voted for them, adding that the voters denounced it through the ballots they cast and no one had a right to keep on going on these measures after the people had decided that the measures are not acceptable.

Syriza is said to have hopes that a new ballot would help them emerge victorious but a overall majority that would allow them to rule alone is highly unlikely to be obtained.

In a 300-seat parliament, New Democracy is holding now 108 seats in the new parliament, 50 0f which are a bonus for winning elections, Syriza has 52 seats, that is 6 less than the center-right party (not considering the bonus 50 seats), PASOK scored 41 seats, Independent Greeks have 33, the Communist 26, the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn 21 and the Democratic Left 19 seats.

As talks about Greece leaving the eurozone intensify, the German chancellor and officials urged Greece to abide by the agreement signed with the European countries, warning that a leave from eurozone would destabilize the European common currency but would hurt the Greek interests worse than any other country in the European community.

The chief of the German federal bank said that unless Greece makes good on its word to implement the bailout measures agreed earlier this year with the European partners the bailout financial support could be stopped. PASOK and the New Democracy are the parties which reached an agreement to uphold the bailout agreement if they were to come to power.

Fitch rating agency is of the opinion that a pullout of Greece from the eurozone would place all the remaining 16 countries on “rating negative watch,” with the perspective of possible downgrades, because it would annul the fundamental tenet of the eurozone, that is that the membership of the European Economic and Monetary Union is irrevocable.11