Foreign Media on the Greek Presidential Election's Second Ballot and Snap Elections Scenarios [Video]

In the turmoil of the second unsuccessful ballot for the election of the new President of the Hellenic Republic, international media have yet again turned their eyes to the Greek Parliament. The numbers simply do not add up, they estimate, regarding Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ ultimate efforts to attract the necessary 180 MPs’ votes for the election of his candidate, Stavros Dimas.

The Financial Times reported that Dimas, a former European Commissioner, “now appears unlikely to capture the 180 votes required in the third and final ballot on December 29,” while main opposition SYRIZA “has kept a steady lead in opinion polls over the governing center-right New Democracy party since coming first in European parliamentary elections held in May.” Citing analysts, The Financial Times estimated that “the Prime Minister needed to notch up at least 170 votes in Tuesday’s second-round vote to give him a reasonable chance of winning the final ballot on Monday.”

Deutsche Welle characterized the prospect of snap elections, if the Greek Parliament fails to elect a new President on the final ballot next Monday, as “unwelcome,” underlining that European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials “fear a victory by radical leftist party SYRIZA, which wants to renegotiate Greece’s international bailout and roll back the austerity measures of recent years. SYRIZA, which despite its fiscal reform plans says it still wants to keep Greece in the euro, leads slightly in opinion polls.”

Bloomberg estimated that the country is moving towards general elections, as the Greek Premier lost yet another ballot. “Attention now turns to the final attempt on December 29, when Samaras needs a narrower majority of 180 votes to elect Dimas. Failure will dissolve parliament and lead to early elections. The prospect of an early vote has spooked markets, evoking memories of the financial crisis in 2012 when Greece’s euro membership was in jeopardy. Polls showed anti-austerity opposition party SYRIZA ahead of Samaras’ New Democracy,” Bloomberg stressed.