As expected, the Greek Parliament failed Wednesday to appoint a Head of State. Stavros Dimas, the candidate of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has gathered 160 votes out of 300. A second and third rounds are planned in late December.

The Greek parliament has failed, Wednesday, December 17, as expected, to gather 200 votes out of 300 in favor of the presidential candidate of the Republic proposed by the government, Stavros Dimas , said the President of the Assembly.

According to the official count, the total of 295 deputies voted, five were missing, 160 voted in favor and 135 against Dimas, detailed Evangelos Meimarakis. Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner and former part of the right, was the only candidate.

The right-wing government Socialists coalition, which has 155 MPs, therefore did not reach the first round of the 165 votes hoped informally, even making the minimum expected by observers.

The threat of early parliamentary
Two other towers are planned on 23 and 29 December, but if they are unsuccessful, early parliamentary should be convened, a high-risk voting for the government. The radical left party Syriza is indeed favorite in the polls.

This election is carefully observed in Brussels and the main European capitals, where Syriza program raises reservations. Verbal confrontation between the conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Alexis Tsipras, head of Syriza, reached the highest level in recent days.

Antonis Samaras has raised the specter of a Greek exit from the euro in case of a victory of SYRIZA considering that the vote for Stavros Dimas was “a choice to avoid a political adventure that could prove fatal to European development of the country.

For his part, Alexis Tsipras called Sunday Antonis Samaras as Prime Minister of chaos indicating that he was able to stage a capital flight to stoke fear of voters.

The government relies on independent
The government does not expect the election of a president before the third round, 29 December, a vote that requires a majority reduced to 180 deputies. It relies on independent members and alliances with some parliamentarians.

Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, head of the socialist Pasok, called the consensus of the members of the democratic camp. We are advancing to the third round (…) attempting to approach the parties of the democratic camp, conclude negotiations with creditors elections (general) would be harmful to Greek interests,” he launched on Wednesday before his caucus.