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Victoria Mindova

PASOK and New Democracy reached a consensus to form a coalition government, the members of which will be announced on Monday. Under the supervision of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Carlos Papoulias, the leader of PASOK and Prime Minister for another few hours, George Papandreou, and the leader of the opposition New Democracy Antonis Samaras agreed that a new government will be formed. It will have to immediately ratify the agreements reached during the last summit of the EU leaders in late October and put into effect the measures included in it, then it will call an early parliamentary election. The first assessment is that all the work of the temporary coalition government should be completed in early 2012 and that new elections be held by February next year.

According to the latest information circulating in some of the Greek media the position of Prime Minister will be taken by former Vice President of the European Central Bank Loucas Papadimos who is currently traveling from the U.S. to Athens to assume his new duties. The Prime Minister will have two deputies, one of whom is the current Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos. He is expected to keep the position currently occupied by him and present Greece and its new government at the meeting of Eurogroup on Monday afternoon. For the position of second deputy prime minister,  the former European Commissioner Stratos Dimas is being discussed. The final draft of the government is expected to become clear by early afternoon on Monday.

"At the meeting it was agreed that a new government will be created to lead the country towards elections, after the implementation of decisions taken at the European Council on 26^th of October. For clarification of the obligations resulting from implementation of the decisions of 26 October as well as the timeframe for their implementation, a second meeting of the two parties will be held immediately. Prime Minister George A. Papandreou has already said that he will not lead the new government. Tomorrow (Monday) the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition party will make contact regarding the face of the new Prime Minister and new government officials."

This was the only official release that came out of the presidential office after the end of the dialogue between Papandreou and Samaras. None of the two leaders made any statements before the cameras and the dozens of journalists who had come from all around the world to capture the fateful meeting. The press release was submitted in printed form. At the moment when the guards of the presidency submitted it, the pieces of paper were literally snapped up with malice and acrimony provoked by the uncertainty as to whether the two leaders had reached a consensus as well as the expectation to possibly learn the name of the new Prime Minister. Expectations were met halfway and everybody wants to learn the names of the members in the new cabinet.

Meanwhile, President Carlos Papoulias announced that he had convened a meeting of all the leaders of the parties from the National Assembly to inform them of the latest events and to call for unity in this difficult period for the country. The first to refuse his call was the Greek Communist Party (KKE), and after them also their fellow Radical Left party SYRIZA. Although they do not recognize the agreement between Samaras and Papandreou, the decision for unification will not be affected.