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| Greek Parliament’s Vote for President Moves to Decisive Round for Coalition | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| ATHENS — The Greek Parliament failed on Tuesday to elect a new president in the second of three rounds of voting that will either enable the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to remain in power or lead to a snap general election and new political and financial upheaval. | ATHENS — The Greek Parliament failed on Tuesday to elect a new president in the second of three rounds of voting that will either enable the coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to remain in power or lead to a snap general election and new political and financial upheaval. |
| The coalition’s candidate, Stavros Dimas, performed better than expected, raising the government’s hopes ahead of the final round of voting on Monday, though he still fell well short of the majority required. | The coalition’s candidate, Stavros Dimas, performed better than expected, raising the government’s hopes ahead of the final round of voting on Monday, though he still fell well short of the majority required. |
| The government has put in place an economic program that includes unpopular austerity measures demanded by Greece’s international creditors. If a snap election were called, opinion polls suggest that a leftist party that opposes those measures would win. | |
| A total of 168 lawmakers in Greece’s 300-seat Parliament backed Mr. Dimas, a former European commissioner, with 131 voting against him and one failing to attend. The support was short of the 200 votes needed in the second round of voting. But the backing for Mr. Dimas rose from the 160 amassed in the first round last week and was closer to the 180 votes required next week, when the threshold for approval drops. | A total of 168 lawmakers in Greece’s 300-seat Parliament backed Mr. Dimas, a former European commissioner, with 131 voting against him and one failing to attend. The support was short of the 200 votes needed in the second round of voting. But the backing for Mr. Dimas rose from the 160 amassed in the first round last week and was closer to the 180 votes required next week, when the threshold for approval drops. |
| The increase in support followed an offer by Mr. Samaras on Sunday to set a date for early elections toward the end of next year — before his coalition’s term ends in June 2016 — in exchange for support for his presidential candidate. Mr. Samaras also proposed broadening his government to include “pro-European personalities” in an attempt to appeal to undecided opposition lawmakers. | |
| Speaking to reporters after the vote, Mr. Samaras welcomed the additional support but pushed for more, noting that lawmakers would “face the consequences of their actions” if they failed to avert “a risk to the nation” in next week’s critical vote. | Speaking to reporters after the vote, Mr. Samaras welcomed the additional support but pushed for more, noting that lawmakers would “face the consequences of their actions” if they failed to avert “a risk to the nation” in next week’s critical vote. |
| Mr. Samaras’s coalition controls 155 of the Greek Parliament’s 300 seats. If the government’s candidate fails to attract the votes needed in the third round on Dec. 29, snap elections will be called for late January or early February. | Mr. Samaras’s coalition controls 155 of the Greek Parliament’s 300 seats. If the government’s candidate fails to attract the votes needed in the third round on Dec. 29, snap elections will be called for late January or early February. |
| That prospect has unsettled Greece’s creditors and international markets as the leftist party Syriza, which has pledged to renegotiate the country’s international bailouts and to seek a write-down of Greece’s huge debt burden, is expected to win any snap election. | That prospect has unsettled Greece’s creditors and international markets as the leftist party Syriza, which has pledged to renegotiate the country’s international bailouts and to seek a write-down of Greece’s huge debt burden, is expected to win any snap election. |
| Commenting after the vote on Tuesday, Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, said that “neither Parliament nor the Greek people will give Mr. Samaras the mandate to continue the memorandums and the demands of austerity.” He was referring to the array of austerity measures Greece has been obliged to carry out since 2010 in exchange for two loan programs worth a total of 240 billion euros, or about $294 billion. | |
| Usually a muted affair, elections for the largely ceremonial role of Greek president are taking place in a tense political climate. Parties have accused each other of fear mongering, and new political movements are being forged. |