Olive Tree

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos are said to be planning a bold reshuffle to refresh the government and show that they have heeded the message sent in European Parliament elections on Sunday when leftist SYRIZA achieved a historic victory.

Greece's leftwing opposition Syriza party won the country's European elections, official projections showed late Sunday.

SYRIZA gained the first electoral victory in its history on Sunday as it came first in the European Parliament vote but failed to establish a big enough gap over the coalition, for which PASOK performed better than expected, to suggest that the government’s stability is in question.

The stability of the Greek government will be put at risk if the center-left Olive Tree (Elia) alliance does not perform well in the May 25 European Parliament elections, PASOK leader and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said Tuesday.

The contest for the May 25 European Parliament elections is due to intensify next week as the center-left Olive Tree alliance and To Potami, the new party led by journalist Stavros Theodorakis, are due to announce their candidate list and manifesto respectively.

Deputy Culture Minister Pantelis Kapsis, a former journalist who is responsible for the creation of a new public broadcaster, said on Wednesday that he would run in the coming European Parliament elections on the ticket of Olive Tree, which is PASOK’s alliance with center-left groupings.