New Democracy

By Antonis Galanopoulos and Marcus Bensasson

Greece moved a step closer to early elections after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras failed to gather enough support for his nominee in a parliamentary vote for a new head of state.

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The crisis did not come without warning. Former Premier Costas Karamanlis knew serious fiscal measures were needed in spring 2009 to avoid bankruptcy but failed to act due to electoral concerns. George Papandreou refused Karamanlis’s offer to reach a consensus in March 2009, triggering snap elections.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is set to reject any attempts for a last-minute deal between the government and the opposition over the election of Stavros Dimas as president, preferring instead to go to snap elections if the coalition fails to get the minimum 180 votes needed on December 29.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Thursday accused opposition SYRIZA of bringing back Grexit fears and sending a message to the markets not to lend to the country by declaring its sovereign debt unsustainable.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of former EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas for president.

"He is widely regarded as a person who unites and inspires. He unites citizens beyond their party preferences and inspires gravity, trust and respect," Samaras said in a televised address of the former European commissioner.

Former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas has emerged as the frontrunner for Greece's presidential candidacy following a meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday morning, a day after the coalition government announced that it is moving up the electoral process.

Former Prime Minister and New Democracy Honorary Chairman Constantinos Mitsotakis expresses his disappointment in a decision Monday by the coalition government to move forward presidential elections by two months in an interview with state-run Vouli television, due to be broadcast on Thursday, Kathimerini has learned.

Greece insisted on Thursday that it is only examining the option of extending its bailout for a few weeks rather than months despite some eurozone countries declaring their support for a six-month prolongation at Thursday’s meeting of the Euro Working Group in Brussels.

A committee of New Democracy MPs asked by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to propose changes to the Greek Constitution suggested Tuesday that the number of lawmakers in Parliament should be reduced from 300 to 200 and that the president of the republic should be given greater powers.

Former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos, ousted from government earlier this year when it was revealed he had held a secret meeting with Golden Dawn, is to form his own party.

Baltakos, who had been one of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s closest aides, said that the new party would be called Rizes (Roots).