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Victoria Mindova

"While Papandreou is deciding what to do, he prevents the finding of any possible solutions. While he is not resigning, he is blocking the actions envisaged in the Constitution. I am determined to help. When he resigns, everything will go well." These were the words of the New Democracy opposition leader Antonis Samaras on his way out of the presidential residence, where he met with Carlos Papapoulias, where they clarified the situation about the current political crisis.

The closed-door conversation was brief. Journalists from all over the world had come together to reflect the speech of the Greek opposition leader who played a key role in the political drama of Greece today. The struggle for a better view for the television cameras was going to become a physical clash between local and foreign journalists. A reporter from a foreign channel said: "We have worked in 27 countries in Europe, but we have never seen such chaos."

Earlier in the day, the President of the Republic Carlos Papoulias called upon Samaras to find a common path with the ruling party in order to break the impasse in which the country has found itself in recent days. "We must end this issue plaguing the Greek people - what are we doing and where are we going? I think we are all responsible for giving a solution to the people’s problems in the country," said Papoulias.

Obviously the position of Samars is beginning to soften, and according to sources close to the two largest parties in Greece, soon we will have a decision on the political mess that began with the idea of ​​a referendum on whether to accept or decline the financial aid from Europe and the International Monetary Fund. The New Democracy leader said he wanted the resignation of George Papandreou, but did not put on the agenda the previous days’ requests. He did not insist, as he had at the end of the week to form a caretaker government, which will quickly ratify the contract for financial assistance and will dissolve the National Assembly in order to declare early elections.

From his message "I am ready for anything after Papanreou leaves" it becomes clear that Samaras is aware of the immediate need to convene a new government, which will seem more reliable to Europeans. If Greece does not come out with a new government of unity by tomorrow morning, the ministerial meeting in Brussels will take place without a Greek representative and the country will move even closer to the dangerous prospect of the new drachma.

Behind the curtains of the political scene there are several options for a new Prime Minister of a government of national unity. One of them is the current Finance Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, who is a longtime opponent of Papandreou in the intra-party game of PASOK. It is not known to what extent New Democracy will want to participate in a coalition government headed by Venizelos.

Another name around which Democrats and Socialists unite is Petros Moliviatis, a former foreign minister in the government of Karamanlis between 2004 and 2006. He has a good reputation in political and non-political circles and is considered able to assume the post of Prime Minister during these times of crisis, despite his old age of 83 years. Moliviatis is part of New Democracy. Another colleague of his, who has a good reputation in Brussels and Athens, is European parliament member Stratos Dimas. Rumours say that this name was suggested by PASOK to New Democracy, but still nothing has been confirmed.

According to the assessment of analysts in the country, he will not be Samaras’ first choice. The blue leader will prefer to choose an independent blue party figure. He must have a technocratic approach and make the necessary changes with the coalition government, but should not "stain" the name of New Democracy with unpopular measures, which can give negative results in early parliamentary elections. Here again we also see the name of the former vice president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papadimos.

Decisions will be made within hours. Follow GRReporter for more details.