Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited the President of the Hellenic Republic Tuesday noon time for the necessary arrangements to dissolve the Parliament and proclaim early elections. “The big moment has arrived,” Karolos Papoulias reportedly told Samaras and expressed hope that “all goes well with the country.”
The Prime Minister replied that “the Parliament dissolves earlier” and added
“The people did not want elections. They are unnecessary, but unfortunately they are the result of partisan self-interest.
“But when it comes to the security and stability of the nation, the battle is about truth and responsibility. In this battle, it is not the political parties that come first, but the nation, particularly as Greece’s remainder in Europe is at stake.”
Papoulias will issue a Presidential decree today and order the dissolution of the Parliament while naming the “25. January 2015” as the date for the early elections. The decree will be displayed in the Parliament tomorrow, Wednesday, 31. December 2014.
Early elections have been constitutionally enforced after Greek coalition government Nea Dimokratia and PASOK failed to elect the country’s next President on Monday.
It looks as if PM Samaras will not step down and the coalition government will take the country to elections.
Two independent MPs (Iatridi and Giovanopoulos) joined Nea Dimokratia on Tuesday. The two had voted in favor of Stavros Dimas. Nea Dimokratia has now 129 seats in a Parliament that will be dissolved tomorrow. Too bad for the two that Samaras cannot give them ministerial posts as he had promised a day before the second round of the Presidential voting.
Nevertheless, Nea Dimokratia had won 129 seats in June 2012 elections, i.e. 79 seats + 50 seats Bonus for being the party that came first.
PS The year 2014 ends with the end of the Greek Parliament as this emerged from the June 2012 elections. 31. December 2014 is a historical day, indeed, full of symbolism and a spark of hope that something may change in this country …
