Greek Opposition Leader Attempts to Form New Coalition
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Greece's conservative opposition leader Vangelis Meimarakis says he's trying to form a new government with parties from the current parliament to avoid any negative impact from early elections.
The opposition leader's comments come a day after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned to seek re-election in a vote on September 20th.
"As you know, I have already met with the president, who gave me a three-day mandate to investigate whether the current parliament can give its vote of trust to the formation of a new government."
"I want to visit the parliament speaker to urge her to hold a meeting with party leaders, to see if we can find a substantial, serious political solution in the current parliament. We want to avoid all the negative things that can be caused by the electoral process, which I believe does not help at all," Vangelis Meimarakis said, according to a Friday Xinhua report.
Meimarakis heads Greece's New Democracy party. He was formally handed a three-day mandate by the country's president to try to form a new government on Friday. If he fails, he will have to return the mandate.
It would then go to the third largest party, the new radical group that left Tsipras' ruling Syriza party. Those 25 lawmakers, who will be called Popular Unity, are led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis.
