Moderate leftist party's withdrawal in row over state broadcaster leaves government with three-seat majority
The smallest party in Greece's ruling coalition has pulled out of the government after a row over the abrupt closure of the state broadcaster, leaving the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, with a tiny majority in parliament.
Democratic Left MPs voted to withdraw their ministers from Samaras's government but have yet to decide whether to offer external support in parliamentary votes to keep Greece's international bailout on track, party officials said.
"The country doesn't need elections," the party's leader, Fotis Kouvelis, said. "The Democratic Left insists on its reform policy and will continue to seek and demand solutions within the European reality."
The moderate leftist party's departure is a blow to the conservative Samaras, who now has a three-seat majority in parliament. In a televised address after midnight, he said he was ready to press ahead without the leftists if necessary.
"I want us to continue together as we started but I will move on either way," Samaras said. "Our aim is to conclude our effort to save the country, always with a four-year term in our sights."
The row over the future of the state broadcaster, ERT, coincided with a hitch in Greece's EU-IMF bailout. There is a potential funding shortfall because of the reluctance of some eurozone central banks to roll over their holdings of Greek government bonds.
Ten-year Greek government bond yields rose to their highest levels since late April, on course for their biggest daily rise since July 2012, while Greek stocks tumbled 4%.
Samaras's New Democracy party and its socialist ally, Pasok, command 153 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, but without the Democratic Left's 14 the outlook is more unstable.
John Loulis, a political analyst, said: "The government can't last for long in its new shape. The horse-trading will begin, there will be more crises, they won't be able to push reforms. At some point we'll have early elections whose outcome can't be predicted."
Officials from all three parties ruled out snap elections for now, which would derail the bailout programme.
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