New reshuffle on the Greek political scene after New Democracy has opened its arms to Makis Voridis and Adonis Georgiadis, who were disaffiliated with LAOS. Two former members of the extreme right party of George Karatzaferis remained politically "homeless" after voting in favour of the second memorandum, contrary to the party line imposed in LAOS.
"The next election will decide whether Greece will remain a member of the European Union and the eurozone. The country needs serious government to restore hope. The only organized party is New Democracy, which expresses the hope that Greece will not become Syria," said Adonis Georgiadis upon leaving the offices of the right party. Adonis Georgiadis had held the post of Minister of Merchant Marine in the government of Lucas Papademos.
His coleague Makis Voridis who remains in his position as Minister of Transport and Infrastructure said that Antonis Samaras has taken a very hard decision by inviting the two deputies of the right party. He stressed that the move poses big political risk to the leader of New Democracy and it was his duty to support him in his decision. "In these critical moments, it is necessary to ensure that the liberal party will meet its patriotic obligation and will offer creditors not only reliability but will also reassure citizens that economic growth will come." The two newcomers in New Democracy gave up their deputy seats in LAOS and are expected to enter the electoral lists of the central right in the spring elections.
At the same time, it became clear that PASOK will have a new leader by 18 March this year. A meeting of the political council will be held next week and the first date set for the election is 4 March. By that time, the national council must have submitted the applications for approval. The elections will be carried out from the base of the party electorate, not by a party body. The goal is for the new leader of the Socialists to get the highest political support from the members of PASOK after George Papandreou managed to raze to the ground PASOK's popularity among the public in two and a half years.
Meanwhile, it has become clear that the PSI procedure for exchanging the Greek government bonds with new ones of lower face value will end on 8-9 March in the normal course of events. In addition, the discussions in Europe for granting the new bailout to Greece will end by 19 March this year. The main index of the Athens Stock Exchange jumped by 5% on Friday compared with Thursday's session and the daily turnover reached 94.3 million euro.
"The markets anticipate a positive outcome for Greece of the Eurogroup meeting on Monday and of the beginning of the PSI, so that everything goes its way," Merit financial analyst Nikos Christodoulou told Reuters. The winners of Friday's trading were the banking sector, which registered an increase of 11.09%, raw materials – 7.62%, chemicals – 4.98% and financial services registered a growth of 4.92%. The shares of 137 companies gained during the day, 36 declined and 21 remained unaffected by the trend at the end of this week.
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
