Greek PM Samaras Rules Out Early Elections

Greek President Karolos Papoulias (R) welcomes main opposition Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras (L) at the Presidential Mansion in Athens, 3 November 2014. Photo EPA/BGNES

Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has rejected calls for early elections by the leader of opposition radical leftist party Syriza Alexis Tsipras.

Samaras said snap polls are “precisely what the Greek people do not want and what international markets fear”, ekathimerini.com reported.

“I had the chance to repeat... that there will be no early elections,” Samaras said on Monday following a meeting with President Karolos Papoulias who earlier had received Tsipras separately.

Tsipras had asked Papoulias, whose term of office will expire in March 2015, to call a meeting of party leaders to decide on a date for early general elections and agree on a new presidential candidate that could be approved by MPs after the snap polls.

According to Tsipras, a new cabinet could win better terms in negotiations with Greece’s international creditors.Tsipras has indicated a future Syriza government would not adhere to decisions made without its consent.

Samaras, however, on Monday said Tsipras’ call for early elections is seeking to destabilize the country amid the first signs of recovery.

Samaras visited the President to inform him of the latest developments in negotiations with the Troika group of international lenders - the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank -and the government's strategy for Greece's early exit from theunpopular bailout programme at the end of the year.

Greece’s Conservative-Socialist governing coalition won a confidence vote last month, thus avoiding early elections for the time being.Samaras called the vote in an effort to rally support for his plan to abandon the much-detested EU/IMF bailout package 15 months early, despite the potential loss of about EUR 15 B in future aid. 

Samaras, whose coalition government is supported by 155 of the 300 members of Greece’s Parliament, needs the support of at least 25 more to push through his presidential nominee. He has pinned his hopes of winning enough additional votes in Parliament on his plan for an early exit from the bailout.

According to a new survey conducted by Rass for iefimerida.gr last week, Syriza would win 26.4% of the vote if elections were held now, ahead of governing Samaras’ New Democracy party which garnered 21.1% support.

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