Friday, May 11, 2012
PASOK leader, Evangelos Venizelos, whose party polled third at last Sunday’s election received yesterday from Hellenic President Karolos Papoulias the mandate to explore whether a government enjoying the Parliament’s confidence can be formed, following two unsuccessful bids by the parties (New Democracy and Syriza) that polled in first and second place.
Upon receiving the mandate Venizelos met with Democratic Left party leader, Fotis Kouvelis who said, following the meeting, that he had proposed the formation of an 'unity' government with the participation of several parties, which will stay in power until the European Parliament elections in 2014 and seek to guide the country out of the crisis.
Kouvelis noted that such a government should include trustworthy political figures and respect the message of last Sunday's election."The discussion I had with Mr Kouvelis was very substantive," PASOK leader said. "Mr Kouvelis set out a specific and responsible proposal […] It is virtually in line with our suggestion for the creation of a national unity government that seeks to move beyond the memorandum within three years," Venizelos said.
Meanwhile, in a letter -addressed to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker- Coalition of Radical Left leader, Alexis Tsipras noted that "we must reconsider the entire framework of the existing strategy, given that it is not only threatening social cohesion and stability in Greece, but also constitutes a source of instability for the European Union itself and the eurozone."
