–Syriza Leader Demands New Democracy, Pasok Renounce Bailout Conditions
–Move Seems Intended To Force New Election In June

ATHENS (MNI) – The leader of Greece’s far-left party Syriza, which
placed second in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, received a mandate
Tuesday to form a coalition government after conservative New Democracy
head Antonis Samaras failed in his bid to do so Monday.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has said he would use all three days
available to him to try and form a government, whereas Samaras
surrendered the mandate after only five hours, finding it impossible to
bridge the differences between his party and others to his left.

In reality, however, Tsipras seems intent on forcing a new
election. Although he said he would meet with Samaras and with Socialist
Party (Pasok) leader Evangelos Venizelos — the two leading coalition
parties before Sunday’s vote — Tsipras actually threw down the gauntlet
to them.

He said Samaras and Venizelos had 24 hours to prove they were
willing to change course by sending a letter to the EU Commission and
the IMF retracting their previous commitments to the budget cuts and
economic reforms imposed by Greece’ international lenders as a condition
of the country’s bailout loans.

“They should stop fooling the people. We do not need a [pro-]
bailout government,” Tsipras said.

His ultimatum essentially torpedos the possibility of any coalition
government with New Democracy or Pasok, and greatly complicates the task
of Greek President Karolos Papoulias should the president seek to
assemble a broad unity government to keep Greece on its current reform
path.

It also means that a new election, either on June 10 or June 17, is
now overwhelmingly likely. Tsipras’ calculation seems to be that given
Greek voters’ anger over the crushing austerity imposed on them, his
party has a good chance of becoming the number one party if a second
election is held.

In an effort to bolster his chances, Tsipras is attempting to
overturn an electoral law that gave 50 bonus seats in parliament to the
party that came in first. Instead, all 300 seats in parliament would be
distributed proportionally based on the vote count. That means that New
Democracy, which got the most votes on Sunday, would not get the extra
50 seats it was awarded under the current electoral law.

Tsipras is expected to meet today with his counterparts from other
left-leaning parties. He had previously said he would meet with
Venizelos of Pasok and Samaras of New Democracy on Thursday.

–Athens bureau, a_papamiltiadou@hotmail.com

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