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live The fall of Papandreou: The Prime Minister remains until he’s gone

05 November 2011 / 13:11:18  GRReporter
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Late last night in parliament, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced his intention to begin negotiations to form a coalition government. However, in his speech before the vote of confidence it was not entirely clear whether he is ready to resign as Prime Minister.

He will visit the Greek President Karolos Papoulias and will request the start of negotiations for the creation of a coalition government. Antonis Samaras categorically refused for his party to attend, because George Papandreou rejected the whole proposal of New Democracy. The leaders of the two left parties – the Communist party and the coalition SYRIZA also made it clear that the only way out of this situation was early elections. In this case, the only parties which could possibly support PASOK are the extreme right Laos, the Democratic Left and the Democratic Alliance of Dora Bakoyiannis.

Constitutional law professors argue that according to the supreme law of the country the President has the authority to enter into negotiations to form a coalition government if neither party has a parliamentary majority. Since PASOK has this majority, the only correct scenario under the constitution is the following: George Papandreou can resign as Prime Minister and some of the current parliament members can be offered the position, whose nomination is then approved in a vote by the party's parliamentary group, which has a parliamentary majority. "Ministers can be people outside the parliament, but the Prime Minister must be a member," they stressed. After the vote and the determination of the team, the government must obtain a vote of confidence from Parliament within 15 days.

Commentators suggest that this further complicates things, because Greece has no time for the procedures enshrined in the Constitution. Pressure grows for the country because Europe is not joking anymore and is already working on options, which will eventually take Greece out of the eurozone and the European Union, if the Greek politicians fail to address the situation adequately.

Barroso, Van Rompuy, Merkel and Sarkozy call for the immediate formation of a government of national unity so that Greece can prove that it can negotiate with the other 16 eurozone members in a dignified manner. Germans, Frenchmen and others who are paying the bills of the Greeks insist on such a government, in order to be sure that the loans from 2010 and onwards will be paid, decisions of the eurozone will be ratified and the danger to the system will be discontinued.

All data show that Greece is now a real threat to the Euro and the development of major eurozone countries. Representatives of the European Commission and the German government show two outcomes:

The good scenario claims that Greece will implement the necessary reforms in the spirit of national unity, it will meet the economic programme that was created for it and one day will return to the path of development.

According to the worst case scenario Europeans will have no choice but to move their capital towards limiting the consequences of the boom, which will cause the first ever withdrawal from the membership of a country from the European Union and the eurozone.

Both scenarios have the same value. Everything is a matter of political choice, say sources from the European Commission. There is no time for delay, says real.gr's correspondent in Brussels. The deadline of one week is already an excessive tolerance, which was given by creditors to Greece to resolve the issue of political change. But they also indicate that it is not possible to form a national unity government without the participation of the main opposition party.

"The members of the Government had relied on New Democracy and Antonis Samaras as part of a system that controls the state. They said that the reforms were not carried out because of a lack of agreement on their part. We asked for consent from PASOK and New Democracy. If the opposition does not participate in the government of national unity, the programme cannot be implemented. This seems like a mockery to us," says a European Commission representative.

Representatives from the European institution explained that "nobody in the European Union is willing to give more time or another opportunity to Greece. You will either solve your problem or you will leave." According to the Greek media correspondent they pointedly stated that "if the problem was not in New Democracy from the very beginning, then someone in Greece has been mocking us. In any event nobody here has the intention of participating in the same game again."

Tags: politics Greece Papandreou fall of government
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