Greek Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos was due to meet conservative Antonis Samaras yesterday in a possibly doomed attempt to form a government and avoid a repeat election, while EU leaders were warning that Greece’s membership of the euro is at stake.
Voters enraged by record unemployment and a deep recession punished both the Socialists and conservatives — the only two parties backing an EU/IMF bailout — in an election on Sunday, backing smaller parties that reject the wage cuts and tax hikes required in return for international aid.
Venizelos is the third and last political leader to try to form a government after the election, which resulted in a hung parliament.
Chances of clinching a coalition deal are slim and officials said this was in any way unlikely before talks move to the next stage when the president asks all political leaders to make one final effort before new elections are called.
Venizelos, a former finance minister who negotiated Greece’s second, 130 billion euro (US$168 billion) bailout, was due to meet Samaras, whose party was reluctantly part of the government which struck the rescue deal, at 8am.
The two parties jointly have 149 seats in parliament, two short of a majority, and cannot rule alone.
Any last hope of putting together a coalition rest on Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis, a moderate who emerged from a meeting with Venizelos on Thursday proposing an all-party government that would keep Greece in the euro while detaching it from the bailout deal.
Kouvelis’ party won 19 seats in the election, but its popularity has fallen slightly since, while the more hardline Left Coalition, SYRIZA, which failed earlier this week to form an anti-bailout coalition, is now the most popular party in Greece, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.
“There is a very slim chance for a coalition if Kouvelis agrees,” one socialist party official said. “But his party is split right down the middle.”
The political deadlock prompted warnings by European leaders that Greece could be thrown out of the euro if it does not stick to the spending cuts and economic reforms required by the bailout, which is the only thing keeping Athens from a messy bankruptcy.
“We do not have an infinite amount of time. Time is flying because there are financing needs, but the first steps have to be taken now from the Greek side,” European Central Bank governing council member Ewald Nowotny said in Vienna.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Europe and the IMF were still determined to help Greece, but the country could not be helped if it did not help itself.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS