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Anastasia Balezdrova

The long period of waiting during which Greece was very close to being ruled in the coming months by a "puppet" Prime Minister of one of the two major parties, is over as political leaders have finally managed to agree on the new Prime Minister.

After last night's fiasco with the name of the parliamentary chief Filippos Petsalnikos, whose candidacy was not able to survive for more than a few hours and was the reason for the failure of the meeting last night, today, the political leaders have a quite different approach.

George Karatzaferis was the first to enter the presidential building. "Today is a beautiful, sunny day," he said with a smile. Antonis Samaras, who came on foot rather than in a car, arrived second followed by now former Prime Minister George Papandreou.
 
"I am coming for the third time for this issue. I hope it will be the last," said Antonis Samaras, while George Papandreou just greeted media representatives.

The meeting of PASOK, New Democracy and LAOS leaders with President Carlos Papoulias began on time and without any surprises like last night's premature withdrawal of the leader of the extreme right. Less than an hour later, there was a fuss among the dozens of journalists who were across the street that Lucas Papademos was expected to arrive at the presidential building.

After 11:00 am, when the news reached them that Archbishop Yeronimos had postponed his scheduled trip to the island of Chios and stayed in Athens, there was the first strong evidence that political leaders had agreed on the name of the future Greek Prime Minister.

Lucas Papademos arrived shortly before 12 noon and entered the presidential building by his car without making any statement. Two and a half hours later, the Greek Presidency made an official announcement, stating that President Carlos Papoulias has given Lucas Papademos mandate to form a cabinet. According to the text, the leaders have agreed to carry out the decisions agreed at the meeting last Sunday, i.e. that this will be an interim and short-term government that is formed to meet obligations enshrined in the new bailout to Greece.

A little later, George Karatzaferis, Antonis Samaras and George Papandreou left the presidential building and their smiles showed that they were satisfied with the results.
 
The new Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos went out of the building and having passed through the alley, he made a short but very meaningful statement, according to many commentators. "This is a great honour for me and the responsibility that I take is even greater. I am not a politician but in most of my professional life, I have been implementing economic policies in Greece and Europe. Greece is still experiencing huge problems. Our path will not be easy, but I believe the problems will be solved. Moreover, it will happen faster if there is unity. The new government is interim and it will have to perform specific tasks. The main one is implementation of the decisions of the European Commission," said Lucas Papademos and stressed his belief that the participation of Greece in the euro area is a guarantee for the country."

The new Greek Prime Minister said that the date of early elections has not been determined and that he would not answer questions regarding the names of ministers who would participate in his office before the announcement of the government programme.

To put an end to the early discussion about whether he had placed conditions for accepting the post, Lucas Papademos said, "I would like to say that I have not put any conditions to any of the political leaders." Sources from PASOK have claimed that the banker set three conditions, while New Democracy denied their existence.

Negotiations on forming the new government will begin in about an hour. They will involve the new Prime Minister, George Papandreou, Antonis Samaras and George Karatzaferis. According to some sources, the leaders of Democratic Alliance and Democratic Left Dora Bakogiannis and Fotis Kouvelis will be invited although these two parties have been established after the elections and are therefore not represented in parliament. Dora Bakogiannis has said she would agree to participate in the cabinet, if invited, while Fotis Kouvelis has not yet declared his intentions.

The new government will take oath on Friday at 2.00 pm.