Snap elections as parliament fails to elect president
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
Greece will hold early national elections, following the Greek Parliament’s failure on Monday to elect Stavros Dimas as president of the Hellenic Republic in the third and final round of voting for the presidential election.
A total of 168 deputies voted in favour of his candidacy and 132 MPs did not support him and voted ‘Present’.
Antonis Samaras, after the election process, made televised comments, saying that his government did all it could to elect a new president and avoid 'dangerous elections' which the majority of Greek people don't want. Unfortunately, he said, a 'minority of 132 MPs' in which SYRIZA and Golden Dawn voted together sent the country to early elections. This is a development that Greek society didn't want. Now, Samaras said, that which parliament didn't do, the Greek people must do. To keep Greece on the 'steady course of reform' and see Greece finally exit from the Memorandum. 'The Greek people will not allow its sacrifices to go in vain' the PM stated. 'We will not allow anyone to call Greece's place in Europe into question.' This will be the most crucial election in decades, Samaras maintained as 'it is very easy for Greece to sink back into crisis.
The Prime Minister also said that he will go to the president of the republic tomorrow and ask for parliament to be dissolved. That means snap elections will be held on January the 25th.
In remarks Alexis Tsipras has called it a 'historic day' saying that parliament avoided being blackmailed and listened to the will of the people. In a few days, he says austerity, memoranda 'will be history'. The future has already begun and Greeks should be optimistic.
