Snap election

What Turkish voters asked for in the June 7 parliamentary election is forming of a coalition government; and if both the incumbent ruling and main opposition party fail to form the new government within the constitutional limit, then a snap election is ?inevitable,? President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has maintained.

What Turkish voters asked for in the June 7 parliamentary election is forming of a coalition government; and if both the incumbent ruling and main opposition party fail to form the new government within the constitutional limit, then a snap election is ?inevitable,? President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has maintained.

Prime Minister Gruevski said that at Tuesday's marathon talks in Skopje mediated by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, he accepted snap polls in order "to end the agony in which the opposition has put Macedonia".

After almost nine hours of talks with Macedonia's warring leaders in Skopje, Commissioner Hahn on Tuesday said he had extracted an agreement on a transition period leading up to snap elections that must take place by next April.

All political parties wishing to take part in the snap polls on January 25 will have to submit their details, including names and symbols, to the Supreme Court by January 9.

The court is expected to announce on January 14 which parties fulfill the criteria needed to take part in the general elections.

The association representing Greek lawyers on Tuesday ruled to end an open-ended strike which has been ongoing since the start of the month.

Lawyers will return to work on Wednesday following the decision, which was deemed necessary in light of snap elections being called for January 25.

Greek MPs are due to vote in the third and final presidential ballot at noon, local time, with the government’s candidate Stavros Dimas needing to gather 180 votes so snap elections can be avoided.

The week starting today may trigger major political developments in Greece. It may change the parameters of the political spectrum as we have known it up until now and bring to the surface new players who would have to face the challenge of the next general elections, which are due in 2016 but are likely to take place later in 2015.

Sweden's government on Dec. 27 announced a deal with the opposition that will avert the country's first snap elections in more than half a century and counter the rising influence of the anti-immigrant far right.
 

Unless there are snap general elections, ex-Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou will stand before a special court by February 11 to answer charges that he tampered with a list containing the names of more than 2,000 Greeks with deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC in order to remove the names of three relatives.