Greece’s embattled Prime
Minister, Antonis Samaras, issued an eleventh-hour appeal to parliamentarians
on Saturday in an attempt to avert snap elections that would almost certainly
plunge the eurozone into renewed crisis.
Failure would
automatically trigger elections that radical leftists would be likely to win.
The ballot has therefore electrified Greece, rattled markets and unnerved
Europe. “I am once again appealing to all MPs, of all parties, to vote for the
president of the republic,” Samaras told state television. “If we don’t elect a
president the responsibility will hang heavily over those who don’t vote for
[him]. They will be remembered by everyone, especially history.”
Samaras’s high-stakes
gamble of calling the poll two months early has brought him face-to-face with
the spectre of losing power if he fails to convince 12 MPs to back Stavros
Dimas, his choice for the presidential post. A former European commissioner,
Dimas received 168 ballots in a second round of voting last week – well short
of the 200 required. On Monday he must amass 180 to be elected.
Following a Christmas
of frantic behind-the-scenes politicking, the prime minister warned of the
perils of taking the debt-stricken country down the road of “absurd adventure”
if deputies failed to endorse Dimas. “People do not want early elections… We gave
sweat and blood in recent years to keep Greece standing upright.”
The government,
enmeshed in tortuous negotiations with the EU and IMF to keep Greece afloat,
has repeatedly warned of the dangers that would be unleashed if a general
election were to be called. With its fierce anti-austerity rhetoric, the
radical left Syriza party has revived fears of Athens being forced to leave the
eurozone if it does assume office and refuses to enforce tough austerity
measures in return for aid. Samaras’s do-or-die intervention was aimed at
swaying lawmakers who have yet to decide which way to vote, with the
conservative leader appealing to the consciences of MPs. Successive polls have
shown the vast majority of Greeks are opposed to early elections.
(Απόσπασμα από: theguardian.com)
