Meeting for an interim government

The meeting of political leaders under President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias, concerning the formation of an interim government that will lead the country into new elections, is underway.

The first to arrive at the Presidential Palace was the President of the Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, followed by SYRIZA president Alexis Tsipras, Democratic Left president Fotis Kouvelis, KKE general secretary Aleka Papariga, president of PASOK Evangelos Venizelos and ND president Antonis Samaras. The Golden Dawn Secretary, Nikos Michaloliakos, will not attend the meeting.

Coming to the presidential palace, Kammenos spoke about his party's positions on the formation of the interim government.

For the post of prime minister he wants one of the three senior judges, as provided for in the Constitution, while for the Foreign ministry he will propose Professor Panagiotis Ifestos, and for the Ministry of Defense he will request former Defence Chief D. Grapsas.

During the meeting the political leaders are expected to discuss both the person to be placed as prime minister and the date of the new elections. As stated in Article 37 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, "if the impossibility to form a government that has the confidence of parliament is confirmed, the President of the Republic seeks to form a government from all the parties in parliament for the holding of elections, and if this fails too he will instruct the President of the State Council or the Supreme Court or the Court of Auditors to form a government, with the widest possible acceptance to hold elections, and will dissolve the parliament."

It remains unknown whether Lucas Papademos will remain as interim prime minister, and this is because the former president of the European Central Bank reportedly wants to leave this post.

It is also unknown whether the politicians from political ministries such as the Interior ministry will stay in their place. Especially as concerns Tassos Giannitsis, the Communist Party has declared that it would like him to be the interior minister who will be responsible for conducting the second round of elections.

The new parliament that will elect the presidency will be sworn in tomorrow, Thursday, and then will decide on the date of the new elections on June 10 or 17.

The question is what will come out of these new elections. Republic President Karolos Papoulias described the agony of the political world in the meeting with Samaras, Venizelos and Kouvelis on Monday , by saying: "Does anyone think that the new elections will bring such a result that will not have us looking for yet another solution all over again?".