Presidential election will not lead to snap elections, Samaras tells ND deputies

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has told New Democracy MPs that he does not think Greece will go to snap elections early next year over the election of a new president.

Speaking off the record to New Democracy deputies at the Parliament's cafe following the unveiling of an exhibition commemorating 40 years since the restoration of democracy in 1974, Samaras appeared confident that early elections would not be needed.

“It looks like we are not heading toward elections. It seems we have the 180 [the number of deputies that need to approve the election of the President],” Samaras told ND MPs, according to Kathimerini sources.

Earlier in the day Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis also noted that the current House was in a position to elect a new president but expressed his concern over the fact that discussion about the vote had been “premature” leading to an “extended pre-election period.”