Brussels, 08/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, refused to comment on Tuesday 8 May on the political situation in Greece, where political parties are struggling to form a coalition government in support of the second financial bailout negotiated with the country's lenders. Barroso explained that the head of the Conservative New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, which won more seats than any other party, has asked him not to talk about what can or cannot be done in terms of whether the next instalment of aid will be delayed if a new government does not come to power in the near future. Barroso said, however, that the bailout programme was decided upon by Greece itself, along with the international bodies, and was not just a budget consolidation package, but also a programme of reforms for growth. He mentioned a report by the Commission detailing EU aid to help get the Greek economy out of deep recession.
Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said he respected Greek democracy and the election results and, when quizzed on the rise of parties hostile to the second bailout, he said that Greece's problems went back to well before the first bailout of May 2010. He hoped that Greece's political parties would form a government that favoured reform. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said it was extremely important to continue implementing the programmes agreed upon with Greece.
On Tuesday, the head of Syriza, a far left party, Alexis Tsipras, said his party could not join a coalition that supported the second bailout. He said that Greece was not bound by the promises to its international lenders because the majority of voters had rejected parties that support the Greek memorandum of austerity measures. On Monday, Samaras gave up trying to form a government. Sunday's general election results were as follows: New Democracy (108 seats), Syriza (52 seats), Socialist party PASOK (41 seats), the Communist Party (26 seats), neo-Nazi party 'Golden Dawn' (21 seats), Democratic Left Party (19 seats). If the various parties cannot agree on a government, then new elections may be held, possibly on 17 June.
Barroso played down the arrival of neo-Nazis in the Greek parliament, saying that people should examine exactly what a neo-Nazi party is and not hesitate to react if it steps beyond the pale by abusing the European rule of law in the form of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, for example. (MB/transl.fl)