How the world sees Greece
 ABC News | Greece: Police Deployed Outside Far-Right Party HQ ABC News The police move came after Golden Dawn party members last week smashed stalls at a church fair in Rafina near Athens and at a farmers' market in the central Greek town of Messolonghi. Videos of the attacks posted by the media on the Internet showed ... Greece scraps police protection for far-right lawmakers |
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT abcnews.go.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.forbes.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.aljazeera.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.aljazeera.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cnn.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT business.time.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT edition.cnn.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT business.time.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT edition.cnn.com |
Greece on Wednesday was close to forming a coalition to revise an unpopular EU-IMF bailout deal and pull the country out of a harrowing recession that has doomed its economic recovery efforts.
After two months of inertia and two elections within six weeks, the struggling eurozone member badly needs to get back on track with reforms promised for an international bailout that has kept it alive these past two years.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.france24.com |
 New York Times | Greek socialist party head says coalition government could be ... Washington Post ATHENS, Greece — Greek socialist party head Evangelos Venizelos says a three-party coalition government could be formed by mid-Wednesday. Before Greek Coalition Forms, Questions About Its Resolve Greek conservatives hope to seal coalition deal Greek Leaders Poised to Agree on Three-Way Governing Coalition |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.washingtonpost.com |
The faultlines are so deep that even if a government is formed, many believe it will be a miracle if it survives for long
The morning after the night of Greece's make or break election was surprising only because it was so calm. The banks were open and doing a brisk business. The cafes were full; the roads were protest free.
After weeks of being bombarded by talk of Drachmageddon and the perils her country would face if it had elected radical leftists playing with its eurozone future, Fotini Stamatopoulou woke up heaving a sigh of relief. "I was tremendously happy," said the 30-something aesthetician, "that in the end the left didn't get in because who knows what could have happened? But now I want to see action. I want to see a government formed."
On Monday that task fell to Antonis Samaras, the conservative New Democracy leader whose party narrowly beat the radical left coalition Syriza in a poll that had the world on tenterhooks.
Although the election produced no outright winner, New Democracy captured 29.7% of the vote enabling it to control 129 seats in Athens's 300-seat House. But for Samaras the hard work has only just begun.
After years of reputedly craving the job of prime minister, the ambitious politician faces the Herculean labour of forging a government of "national salvation" at a time of unprecedented crisis.
Not since the collapse of military rule has the country come so close to resembling a failed state. Following almost three months of political paralysis - in the runup and wake of an inconclusive poll in May – Greece's public finances are in tatters, its public administration is in disarray, and its austerity-weary people are broken and beaten down. It has now been left to Samaras to pick up the pieces.
Greeks are acutely aware of how close they have come to the brink. Dependent on loans to prop-up their debt choked economy many also know that time is running out with patience running thin among lenders at the EU and IMF.
"We will remember this as a very dark period. This may be our very last chance," said Vasillis Isporas, a chef who at 28 enthuses at the fact that he has work at all. "We created a system that was totally out of control, a state that had become a big fat cow which everyone wanted to exploit, a political set up that was just plain corrupt."
Isporas voted for Syriza not because he liked its programme or even Alexis Tsipras, its young firebrand leader. "For most of my life I have voted conservative," he says. "But this time, my girlfriend and I voted for the left because we wanted to send a message. We wanted to give the right a lesson. We wanted to say clean up your act."
Sunday's election will be remembered as the ballot that was determined by fear and hope, desperation and rage. Politicians, pollsters and pundits were convinced the conservatives clinched victory not because traditional voters had returned to the fold after the party's defeat in May but because Greeks abandoned traditional allegiances to support a party seen as the best guarantor of keeping their country in the eurozone. Faced with the prospect of Athens being ejected from the shared currency, a large slice of the electorate cast their ballots not with their hearts but with their minds.
"Frankly just the thought of voting for a party that is so responsible for the mess we are in made me retch," said Hara Econopoulou, who at 58 has only ever voted for the socialist Pasok. "But we couldn't go on like this without a government. It was essential that the leading "pro-European" party came first. I came out [of the polling booth] saying may God not cut off my hand!"
A majority of Greeks may identify their future with EU membership – widely credited for the dramatic improvement in lifestyles over the past 30 years – but at least 50% also vehemently oppose the EU- and IMF-dictated austerity that has turned their country into a poverty house.
Syriza's rise in less than two months from outcast to main opposition party has many thinking it is only a matter of time before the far-left group of Marxists, Maoists, ex Euro-communists and socialists comes from behind to snatch power.
The mood among party officials since the election has been one of euphoria and jubilation. "This is only a temporary state of affairs," said Panaghiotis Lafazanis, a senior Syriza cadre. "These barbaric measures cannot continue. Very soon everything will change," he said, intimating that by the end of the year elections will be held again.
After receiving a mandate from the country's head of state to form a government, the Harvard-educated Samaras said he would attempt to create a broad-based coalition that could "re-negotiate" the onerous terms of Greece's latest €130bn loan agreement. "It should have as many parties as possible," he said.
Late on Monday the leader announced he had agreed with the head of Pasok, Evangelos Venizelos, to build a coalition within the three-day period that the mandate foresees.
Once bitter political rivals, the socialists, who came in with 12.3% of the vote, say the creation of a government of "national co-responsibility" is vital if Greece is to be successfully steered through the crisis, its worst in modern times. Combined, the two parties would control a comfortable majority of 162 seats in the Greek parliament.
But acutely aware that without the swing vote New Democracy may not have emerged the victor, cadres said it was essential that the small Democratic Left party was also included. Many insisted that the new administration should not only be determined to enact long overdue reforms but also be seen as the harbinger of a "new era" that could mend the broken trust of Greeks in their own political establishment.
"Fixing that bond is very important. We should form a government with the best people, both in and out of active politics," said the New Democracy MP Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a senior party member. "We are aware that a lot of people voted for us with suspicion because they wanted to keep Syriza out."
But faultlines in Greek society are so deep that even if a government is formed many believe it will be a miracle if it survives for long. To secure further rescue loans Athens has agreed to pass an extra €12bn in budget cuts, measures that are seen as vital if its moribund economy is to reclaim competitiveness. And on Monday creditors lead by Germany appeared in little mood to relent. The fiscal adjustment program might be relaxed but "only marginally," several officials said.
Some 2,500 Greeks have taken their own lives since the outbreak of the debt crisis. Their coffins would run 5km long if put in a line.
"Greek society simply cannot endure any more measures," insisted Mitsotakis. "It's not a question of what party is in office, it is a fact."
 New York Times | New Greek Rescue Clash With Germany Looms Wall Street Journal Greece appears headed for a new clash with Germany over its rigid bailout program as the winners of Sunday's Greek election prepare to ask Europe for more ... Greek leaders close to coalition, aim to ease bailout After Greek Vote, Europe Still Has a Host of Problems Winning Greek party seeks coalition partners, gets early snubs |
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras's attempt to forge a government of 'national salvation' already snubbed by Syriza
Tasked with forming a coalition government, Greece's conservative leader Antonis Samaras has begun efforts to build an administration of "national salvation" after narrowly winning Sunday's crucial election.
At his meeting with the country's head of state, Karolos Papoulias, the 61-year-old Samaras said he would attempt to forge a coalition of parties that "believe in [Greece's] European orientation and the euro".
"A national understanding by everybody is imperative. I will begin by seeing political leaders," said Samaras, adding that he thought there was room for agreement.
But cadres in the centre-right New Democracy party also acknowledged that navigating the crisis-hit country out of economic freefall and political instability will be far from easy.
Alexis Tsipras, whose radical Syriza party emerged as the runner-up – winning 26.9% of the vote compared with the 29.7% garnered by New Democracy – rejected Samaras's overtures outright, saying the leftwing alliance would instead oppose the government "both in and outside" parliament.
"The role of a strong opposition is to exercise criticism … to intervene in a combative way," Tsipras told reporters after holding talks with Samaras. "And that is what I assured him we would do."
Piling on the pressure, cash-strapped Greece's international creditors have made it abundantly clear that Athens has little time to waste. EU leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel who called Samaras to congratulate him, said it was vital that a government was formed as quickly as possible so that normality returns to the eurozone state.
The new administration faces a series of crucial meetings, including a gathering of eurozone finance ministers on 21 June – at which the country's next injection of cash will be discussed – and an emergency EU summit on 28 June.
Papoulias also underlined the urgency for a government to be formed as he handed Samaras the formal mandate, saying: "The country cannot remain ungoverned for even an hour."
Six weeks of political paralysis in the wake of an inconclusive poll in May have pushed Greece to the brink, with its state coffers fast running dry and public administration in complete disarray.
With 129 MPs in the 300-seat Greek parliament, the conservatives could form a comfortable majority by linking up with the Pasok party, which came in third with 12.3% of the vote.
Evangelos Venizelos, the former finance minister who oversaw the negotiations that secured Greece's second EU-IMF sponsored bailout package, has openly backed the need for reform even if, like Samaras, he also believes the loan agreement should be renegotiated to take some of the heat out of a society that has reached breaking point because of cutbacks. Combined, New Democracy and Pasok would control 162 seats.
But, acutely aware of the opposition the government will face from Syriza and other "anti-austerity" parties, Samaras said it was vital that a national salvation government comprised "as many parties as possible".
Analysts said this would mean forging an alliance with the small, pro-European Democratic Left party which won 6.3% of the vote. Appealing for the parties to co-operate, former prime minister Costas Simitis, who oversaw Greece's entry to the eurozone in 2001, said it was essential that Athens avoid "being driven out of the euro and to the drachma".
But getting there is unlikely to be easy. In a radio interview on Monday, the mild-mannered Fotis Kouvellis, leader of the Democratic Left party, indicated that the horse-trading would be fierce.
"Everything is on the table. The name of the prime minister and the cabinet ministers will have to be discussed," he said, adding that the "gradual withdrawal" from the excruciating terms of the lifeline thrown Greece was also a "red line" over which the party could not cross.
Samaras is due to meet Kouvellis either on Monday night or on Tuesday, said aides.
Greece appeared to have avoided crashing out of the euro currency zone early Monday after political parties in favor of an international bailout deal won a slim election majority.
Live coverage as New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras prepares to form government that will attempt to keep Greece in euro by sticking to bailout terms and austerity
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the fallout from yesterday's Greek elections – elections which seem to have given some respite to European leaders trying to hold the euro together in its current form.
Antonis Samaras, the leader of the centre-right New Democracy party which came first in the poll, is to launch coalition talks today. He said yesterday that his party would honour all its commitments to the EU and the result was a "victory for all Europe".
Leaders of the EU appear relieved that a pro-austerity government could now form; if the anti-austerity party Syriza had won, its leader Alexis Tsipras had pledged to renegotiate the punishing terms of its bailout, threatening its place within the euro. Syriza came a close second, with 26.89% to ND's 29.66% with 99.95% of ballots counted; Tsipras vowed yesterday to remain outside the government and "upset the [austerity] measures and the bailout".
The most likely next step is for New Democracy to try to form a coalition with Pasok, the socialist party that came third with 12.2% of the vote. Together they would have 162 of the Greek parliament's 300 seats. Pasok said yesterday that it would not go into government without Syriza, but this may have been a tactic to make Syriza look as though it was not willing to play a constructive part in Greece's future. ND may also try to bring in the small Democratic Left party, which won 6.3% of the vote and while opposing the country's harsh austerity program has said it will do what is needed to help form a strong government.
Samaras is to receive the presidential mandate to start power-sharing talks just after midday, after Karolos Papoulias, the president, is handed the final results.
We'll be hearing throughout the day from all my colleagues in Greece, and the Guardian has also teamed up with Radiobubble, a Greek web radio and online community, which will also be relaying news to the Guardian. Its citizen journalists tweet using the hashtag #rbnews – you can see their tweets on the right of this page.