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live The fall of Papandreou: Ombudsman Diamandouros tipped as new Prime Minister, he might accept under certain conditions

07 November 2011 / 21:11:10  GRReporter
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Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros is tipped as possible new Prime Minister of Greece, local media report. It is not known whether he will accept the post, because he has just been elected for the second four-year term of his position, and ruling Greece does not now seem the first choice in the professional life of a man outside politics. For Reuters, Diamandouros said that party representatives had contacted him, but did not specify from what camp. Despite the obvious difficulties of the position, he said he would accept the premiership under certain conditions.

A day after the socialist in power George Papandreou and his opponent from New Democracy agreed on a temporary coalition government, there is no accurate information on who will head the new cabinet.

Initially, there was information that the post would be entrusted to former vice president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papademos. NET1 national TV announced that after the talks between government officials and Papademos had begun, some disagreements arose. One of the demands of the former vice president of the European Central Bank was to bring into the cabinet several of his collaborators, technocrats, who he knows might be useful in the reform process. Samaras and Papandreou’s response to this is not known but the big problem arose when Papademos insisted on not determining an exact time frame for the "life" of the interim government.

For now, the leaders of New Democracy and PASOK have agreed that early elections will be held on 19 February 2012. Lucas Papademos had said that it was impossible to determine specific time limits for the interim government, which would be burdened with many heavy tasks and responsible reforms. According to him, it is unrealistic to expect to fulfill all the conditions of the financial assistance agreed on 26 October this year and complete the procedures for the exchange of Greek government bonds (PSI +) by the end of next February.

Furthermore, knowing the nature of the Greek political system, Papademos had insisted that representatives of both opposition parties be involved in his office to ensure real support of the upcoming steps. This idea was not much appreciated by Samaras. He was clear from the outset that he was not inclined to "burn" New Democracy representatives in the interim government, provided that he could use them after the extraordinary parliamentary elections.

Tags: PoliticsOmbudsmanNew prime ministerGreeceAction
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