Photo: naftemporiki.gr
Following the agreement late last night to form a coalition government, today the leaders of PASOK and New Democracy are expected to hold a new meeting or telephone conversation in order to agree on who should be the new Prime Minister of Greece.
Greek and foreign media believe that the person most likely to replace George Papandreou as Prime Minister is former European Central Bank vice president Lucas Papademos. According to the information, the new cabinet will involve, as deputy prime ministers, the present Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos and the deputy chairman of New Democracy and former European Commissioner, Stavros Dimas.
Late last night, the Greek newspaper To Vima reported that the famous banker was already on the plane en route to Athens from the USA, where he was to give a lecture at an American university. Minutes later, a Sky TV commentator denied this information. He noted that Lucas Papademos would be leaving for Europe a few hours later and not for Athens but for the Netherlands, where he would lecture at a local university.
There is still no information on when the leaders of the two main Greek parties will talk about the person who will become the new Prime Minister of Greece.
At the same time, it became clear that the meeting last night between representatives of the economic teams of PASOK and New Democracy, which was held to agree on the position of the country at today's meeting of Eurogroup, had been positive. At the same meeting, which involved Evangelos Venizelos and close associates of Antonis Samaras, it was decided that early elections should be held on 19 February 2012.
Shortly after the party leaders had reached an agreement, government spokesman Ilias Mossialos defined the day as "historic." The atmosphere at the New Democracy central office was also positive. "The first stage went well. Mr. Papandreou has resigned which was our first condition. Now, we have to see how the second phase will develop," claimed party sources.
The new day began with the news that president Carlos Papoulias' meeting with leaders of all parliamentary parties announced late last night will not take place. According to the Greek news agency ANA, the decision was taken after the refusal of the secretary of the Communist Party and the leader of the left coalition SYRIZA Aleka Papariga and Alexis Tsipras to take part in it.
It is not yet clear, but only the president of the far-right party LAOS, George Karatzaferis, is supposed to have a meeting with the President.
The head of the Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis, said in turn that his party would not participate in the composition of the future government. Democratic Alliance headed by Dora Bakogiannis defined the agreement reached between PASOK and New Democracy as "a positive development." A message by the party reads that nobody should forget that Greece has no time left, so the formation of the government should not be delayed.