Leftist leader fails to form Greek govt. - Gayo Lues

Alexis Tsipras, the head of Coalition of the Radical Left, SYRIZA, said in Athens on Wednesday evening that he had abandoned his efforts to form a coalition government after the pro-austerity parties of Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as PASOK, and the conservative New Democracy, declined to join an anti-bailout plan, Reuters reported.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos confirmed the failure after holding talks with Tsipras.

The New Democracy, SYRIZA, and PASOK respectively finished first, second, and third in parliamentary election on Sunday.

With the first and second finishers failing to form the government, it is now PASOK’s turn to try its chances.

If the party repeats the previous failures, the Greek president will be forced to call on all elected officials to form a unity government. And if this does not succeed either by May 17, new election will have to be held.

Greece is the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis where one in every five workers is unemployed, banks are in a shaky position, and pensions and government salaries have been slashed by up to 40 percent.

The outgoing coalition government has adopted spending cuts in order to secure emergency bailout funding from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

On Tuesday, 38-year-old Tsipras criticized austerity measures imposed under a deal brokered between Athens and the EU and IMF, saying his cabinet would reject all the forms of retrenchment if he manages to form a new government. He called for an end to the “plunder” of salaries and pensions.

GJH/MAB/AS/HN