Alexis Tsipras on the left, PASOK Chief Evangelos Venizelos on the right
Athens News Live Blog: 9.30pm After his attempts to form a government, the Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, has said he will hand back the exploratory mandate to form a government to the president at 1pm on Thursday, since the creation of a coalition government was not made possible.
Tsipras, addressing the first session of the party’s new parliamentary group, the members of which he called “comrades”, he said that it was clear that Syriza’s proposals “had broad social support but weak parliamentary support”. “We cannot make our dream for a government of the left a reality; we shall continue, however, to be in the front line of the struggle,” he added.
Tsipras said that not all was lost and that the party had succeeded in getting its message out there: “The new [austerity] measures and how they can be pushed through parliament are no longer in the spotlight. We have forced a discussion on our policies, which were backed by the people at the polls, and this is a great victory.”
Via Ekathimerini:“I call on all the political forces of the center-right, those who entered and those who remained out of Parliament, to set aside personal differences and party rivalry to protect the rights built up over the last few decades,” said Samaras.
However, by last night there had been no positive responses to Samaras’s call. “I do not think Mr Samaras can be trusted to pull something together at a time when New Democracy is falling apart,” said Manos, who said it would be much easier for his party to join forces with Democratic Alliance.
Karatzaferis was also dismissive of a return to ND, which he considers the home of two MPs – Adonis Georgiadis and Makis Voridis – who “betrayed” LAOS when they joined the conservatives.
Twitter Update: The #coalition parties keep hitting us with the danger of us exiting the #euro but their policies have cost us 75mil euro #Tsipras
According to Bloomberg flashes, Alexis Tsipras, head of the left-wing, anti-memorandum Syriza party, has just said he will NOT be able to form a coalition government with New Democracy or PASOK. If true, then this means that Greece must go to another round of elections and that the rest of us, including those still foolsih enough to have money invested in the markets, will be left with high levels of uncertainty/volatility for a few more weeks. More importantly, though, it shows that the Greek political complex has become much too rigid and reactionary for the Eurocrats to manage.
Here are some other updates from Athens News Live Blog (will add any relevant updates at the top as they come in):
9.01pm< KKE has moved to ask for another electional battle./i>
8.59pm New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras has commented on his meeting with Alexis Tsipras and naturally, it isn’t positive. Samaras noted that he would back a government of national security if it meant staying in the euro. Furthermore, he added that he alone had sent a letter to Brussels asking for significant changes in the bailout policy and as that letter had been positively received, he saw no point in going back on such a request. He stressed that in negating the memorandum, Alexis Tsipras wants Greece to exit the euro and enter into bankruptcy. “This is something I cannot agree to” he said. He noted that the Greek public had voted for a political change, but also to stay in the euro. The ball is now firmly in the court of Evangelos Venizelos, but there is little hope that he will find a solution where others have not.
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