Venizelos has said that PASOK would first try to build a nationalunity government of pro-European parties. If that doesn't happen, Venizelos said that PASOK would be willingto support a coalition formed of other parties as long as it wouldensure Greece remains in the eurozone, the group of 17 countriesthat use the euro. If no one can pull together a coalition, and no national unitygovernment can be formed by May 17, Greece must call new elections. Seven parties won seats in parliament in Sunday's election, but noparty captured more than 19% of the vote. Radical leftist Greek leader Alexis Tsipras gave up efforts to forma coalition government Thursday, after New Democracy party leaderAntonis Samaris threw in the towel on Monday. The election results were widely seen as a message to politiciansto back away from the harsh economic austerity measures imposed inGreece. As Tsipras began coalition talks Tuesday, he said PASOK and NewDemocracy "don't have a majority any more to vote for theplundering of the Greek people." A European Commission spokeswoman said this week that Greece needstime to work through its political process but reminded thecountry's leaders that they would be expected to abide by terms ofa bailout program meant to avoid a crippling financial meltdown. "The commission hopes and expects that the future government ofGreece will respect the engagements that Greece has entered into,"spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen told reporters. New Democracy finished first in Sunday's voting but ended up withonly 108 seats in Greece's 300-seat parliament. Voters also delivered a rebuke to PASOK -- New Democracy'ssocialist partner in the outgoing coalition government -- strippingthe party of 119 seats. Together, the parties fell short of the 50% necessary to continuethe coalition, requiring formation of a new government. Last year, Greece's debt threatened to force it to drop Europe'scommon currency, the euro, prompting the European Central Bank andother lenders to swoop in with emergency funding. In exchange, theydemanded that the government slash spending. The resulting measures have led to tax increases and cuts in jobs,wages, pensions and benefits -- and significant public outcry. The national unemployment rate for January, the latest month forwhich figures are available, was nearly 22%, prompting widespreadprotests and leading some young people to leave the country insearch of work. Youth unemployment is even higher than the national average of onein five out of work. For two years, the country's massive amount of debt has threatenedthe stability of the eurozone. Greece pushed through a huge debt swap in March to save it fromdisorderly default and clear the way for it to receive a secondbailout from the European Union, the European Central Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund, worth 130 billion ($171.5 billion). The debt restructuring deal gave some breathing space to theeurozone bloc, where fears that Greece might collapse had increasedpressure on other debt-laden nations such as Spain and Italy. CNN's Antonia Mortensen and Matthew Chance and journalist ElindaLabropoulou contributed to this report. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China MPPT Solar Charge Controller , China Optical Fiber Amplifier, and more. For more , please visit High Frequency Online UPS today!
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