ATHENS--Greece's two leading pro-bailout parties were continuing
efforts Tuesday to secure support from a small leftist party to form a
broad coalition government that would give them a comfortable majority
in parliament to proceed quickly with tough necessary reforms while
trying to ease some of the terms of the country's EUR173 billion
bailout.
Socialist party leader Evangelos Venizelos kicked off the day's talks
by meeting with the head of Democratic Left party, Fotis Kouvelis, and
called for a cross-party team that will be appointed the task of
renegotiating the terms of the country's loan agreement, regardless of
who exactly participates in a coalition government.
"I am optimistic after the meeting with Kouvelis, our views largely
converge and now what is necessary for us is to speed up procedures,"
he told reporters.
Although New Democracy won the most votes in Sunday's elections, it
doesn't control enough seats to govern on its own and must seek a
coalition partner to form a majority in Greece's 300-member
parliament.
Its former coalition partner, Pasok--which also supports the country's
European-led bailout--came in third in the vote. Combined, the two
parties would control 162 seats, giving them a comfortable margin of
support.
The new government faces many hurdles, with a central administration
threatened by a cash crunch within weeks, an economy in free fall and
an angry public exhausted by two years of austerity measures.
Its first task will be to come up with 11.5 billion euros ($14.6
billion) or more of new austerity measures demanded by the country's
creditors, which could further inflame the public.
Faced with strident opposition in parliament from Greece's
anti-austerity Syriza party --which came in a strong second in
Sunday's vote--Messrs Samaras and Venizelos have been trying to bring
in other party leaders to gain broad backing for the tough decisions
ahead.
One possible candidate is the small, Democratic Left party, which
accepts the loan deal but wants an easing of the terms of the
austerity measures.
Kouvelis said he will wait for a response from New Democracy leader
Antonis Samaras on his proposals before deciding as to whether he will
join the coalition government.
"I am waiting to have his very specific position on policy issues that
I discussed. Policy issues are the decisive factor in forming a stable
and efficient government," he said.
-Write to Stelios Bouras at stelios.bouras@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 19, 2012 05:45 ET (09:45 GMT)
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