Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Hellenic Republic President Karolos Papoulias gave yesterday an exploratory mandate to New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, whose party came first in the Parliamentary Elections 2012 with 18.85%, in order to form a coalition government enjoying the confidence of the parliament.
Samaras received the exploratory mandate according to the Constitution and held meetings with the leader of the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) Alexis Tsipras, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis. In an effort to form a government, Samaras also had telephone conversations with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Aleka Papariga and the office of Independent Greeks party leader Panos Kammenos, all of which failed to bear fruit.
Thus, Samaras returned the mandate to President Karolos Papoulias, who in turn will ask the leader of the second largest party in Parliament, Alexis Tsipras of the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) to explore whether he can form a government enjoying a majority in Parliament. In a televised statement yesterday evening after returning the mandate, Samaras said that "we did everything we could, however it wasn’t possible. After this, I informed the President of the Republic and handed back the mandate."
Yesterday, outgoing Prime Minister Lucas Papademos visited the President to whom he said that "the cooperation government had a specific mission which was completed."
He also noted that "we have covered a large part of the distance toward economic reform and sustainable development and it is very important to safeguard stability, confidence and solidarity necessary to complete the economic recovery effort."
Earlier, the President had received the outgoing Speaker of the Parliament, Philippos Petsalnikos who presented to him the final results of the elections.
