ATHENS - Greece's
parliament will try to elect a president on Monday in a last-ditch bid to avoid
snap general elections that could bring the hard-left to power and spark new
concerns over the eurozone economy.
Should lawmakers fail
-- as expected -- to elect a president in the third and final presidential
vote, snap general elections would be triggered, which the anti-austerity
radical leftist Syriza party are tipped to win.
The European Union and
the International Monetary Fund, which have overseen two international bailouts
of Greece, fear Syriza would undo many of the country's ongoing economic
reforms.
Greece's dire finances
nearly destroyed the eurozone. But even after the bailouts worth 240 billion
euros ($290 billion) and most of the debt held by private investors being wiped
out, the economy has only just begun to recover after six years of contraction.
"President in 24
hours or the country on a knife-edge," headlined the pro-government
Eleftheros Tipos newspaper on Sunday.
The definitive round
of voting to choose a successor to President Karolos Papoulias comes after 11th
hour efforts by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to get the government's
candidate elected and avoid early polls.
"People do not
want early elections -- they want a Greek president coming out of this
parliament," Samaras said Saturday in an interview with public broadcaster
Nerit.
"I did and have
done everything in my power to get a president elected, to avert early
elections, because this is what national interest requires and because that is
my own obligation."
(Πηγή: bangkokpost.com)
