Greece set for snap poll after failure to choose president
Athens, December 29, AZERTAC
Greece is set for a snap election next month that could bring a radical anti-austerity party to power, after lawmakers failed for a third time on Monday (Dec 29) to elect a new president.
The vote, which Prime Minister Antonis Samaras proposed for January 25, is likely to further rattle the economy and financial markets after Greece's dire finances nearly destroyed the eurozone in 2012.
Greek stocks lost more than seven percent after the parliamentary vote - having dropped a massive 11 percent earlier in the day - amid fears that the front-running far-left Syriza party could undo many of Greece's economic reforms if it wins the election. The rate on 10-year Greek government bonds also jumped to 9.55 percent from 8.5 percent last week.
"With the will of our people, in a few days the bailout agreements of austerity will be history," Syriza's 40-year-old leader Alexis Tsipras told reporters after the vote. "The future has already begun," he said.
Syriza, which declined to vote in the presidential election in order to force snap polls, wants to raise salaries and pensions, halt layoffs and freeze the privatization of state assets - key elements of reforms demanded by Greece's EU-IMF creditors.
The government's candidate, former EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, secured just 168 votes out of the 180 needed and under the constitution, parliament will have to be dissolved in the next 10 days. Samaras said he would ask outgoing President Karolos Papoulias to hold elections on January 25.
In recent days, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble have warned Greeks not to change course and abandon the reforms.
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