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Greek leftists in bid to form anti-austerity coalition by 123wert sdfsf
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Greek leftists in bid to form anti-austerity coalition |
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The development underscored the precarious situation of the countryin its fifth year of recession, which needs bailout funds to stayafloat but where painful austerity measures have given rise towidespread voter anger. Conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said his effortsto form a "national salvation" administration had failed, meaningthe runner-up, radical leftist party Syriza, would now be taskedwith forming a government. "I did whatever I could to secure a result but it was impossible,"Samaras said in a televised address after a day of separatemeetings with fellow leaders. "I informed (head of state President Carolos Papoulias) andreturned the mandate," the 60-year-old leader said. Samaras was rebuffed by Syriza and the small Democratic Left group,while the nationalist Independent Greeks and the Communist partyrefused to even meet with him.
Third-place socialist Pasok, formerly in a coalition with NewDemocracy, agreed to cooperate but only if the leftists alsojoined. The parties' snub of Samaras indicates they are paying moreattention to the punishing message sent Sunday by voters fed upwith austerity measures than to worries about the future of theeuro or stern warnings from Berlin and Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the chief proponent of austerityas the main way out of the eurozone crisis, said Monday it was "ofutmost importance" that Greece stuck to its reform path, althoughconceding this was "difficult". A spokeswoman for the European Commission meanwhile said Brussels"hopes and expects that the future government of Greece willrespect the engagements that Greece has entered into." Samaras' party had said he would try talking with every party thatwon seats in parliament except the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.
The task will now fall to Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who will besummoned by Papoulias at 1100 GMT on Tuesday and given three daysto form a government. Tsipras has said he would seek to form a left-wing coalition toreject the "barbaric" measures of the EU-IMF loan agreement thatsaved Greece from fiscal collapse. The weekend vote that sent a centrist government packing also senta message to the IMF and the European Union that the medicine tiedto their 130 billion euro second bailout of the country is notacceptable to the Greeks. Where that leaves the deal is still unknown, but it is likely theIMF, the fiscal disciplinarian behind the deal, will come under newpressure to modify its terms -- which Athens was already havingtrouble meeting, just months into the program.
A new government has to be formed by May 17 or new elections willbe called. The country, in its fifth year of recession with unemployment at 20percent, is committed to finding in June another 11.5 billion euros($15 billion) in savings over the next two years. New Democracy and the left-wing Pasok, which have alternated inpower since 1974, saw their share of the vote collapse to 32.1percent from 77.4 percent at the last election as voters supportedinstead a raft of anti-austerity parties. This left the two parties, which favour sticking to the bailout butwith easier terms, with 149 MPs in the 300-seat parliament,insufficient for a re-run of the outgoing coalition led bytechnocrat Lucas Papademos. Instead, voters angry after two years of cuts handed partieswanting to tear up the agreements a total of 151 parliamentaryseats between them, including the leftist Syriza, which with 52seats relegated Pasok to third place.
The others included Golden Dawn with 21 seats, the right-wingIndependent Greeks with 33 MPs and the communist KKE with 26. Syriza head Tsipras called the election a "message of overthrow". Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding warned Monday there wasa risk that "Europe could turn off the flow of support funds andthus force Greece to leave the euro." Economist Guillaume Menuet of Citi said there was "significantpotential" for Greece to miss its next round of targets and a50-to-75-percent chance of what he called a "Grexit" within 12-18months. Panayotis Petrakis, an economics professor at Athens University,expressed hope however that new French president-elect FrancoisHollande "would prevent Europe treating us too harshly.
There isstill a little room for manoeuvre." This was also a source of hope for voter Nadia Semouiliana, anengineer, who told AFP in central Athens: "Maybe now with theFrench elections this is a new day for all of Europe." Greece's stock market plunged 6.8 percent. Other European marketsand the euro also fell earlier Monday, in part also due toleft-winger Hollande's victory, but recovered ground later, withthe CAC 40 in Paris closing 1.65 percent higher and Frankfurt's DAX30 up 0.12 percent. US stocks opened modestly lower on Wall Street. I am a professional writer from Furniture & Furnishings, which contains a great deal of information about wire dump bins , wire dump bin, welcome to visit!
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