The leader of Greece’s conservative New Democracy party, which participates in the country’s coalition government, said elections should be held before mid-April.
The statement comes during a disagreement with the Socialists on when the country should go to the polls.
In an article New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras wrote for newspaper Real News, he said the completion of Greece’s talks with private-sector creditors on a debt write-down plan will determine any changes to an agreed Feb. 19 election date. “If an agreement on the bond exchange is completed earlier, then elections can take place earlier. If a few more weeks are needed, then elections can delay a bit,” he wrote. “But lets get it right: not after Easter [April 15].”
Greece’s two major parties, the Socialists–also known as Pasok–and New Democracy, agreed last month to the February elections as part of their talks on forming Greece’s coalition. However, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, a member of Pasok, earlier this week said the elections would be pushed back to the end of April, giving the government more time to complete negotiations for a second bailout package and wind up talks aimed at reducing Greek debt owned by private-sector investors by 50% to EUR100 billion ($129.6 billion).
(source: Real News, Dow Jones)
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