Brussels, 12/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 11 December, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned Greece against electing “extreme forces” to power and said he would prefer “known faces.”
“I think that the Greeks - who have a very difficult life - know very well what a wrong election result would mean for Greece and the eurozone,” said Juncker, who is by origin a Christian Democrat from Luxembourg, during an Austrian public television debate, adding that he would prefer known faces to extreme forces being elected to power.
The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has brought forward the presidential elections and the first round will be held on Wednesday 17 December. He hopes that the candidate he backs, former EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, will be elected as the new Greek president (see EUROPE 11214) in order to give the prime minister leeway for opening negotiations with Greece's lenders in early 2015 on exiting the country's aid programme.
Samaras is finding it difficult to cobble together the necessary parliamentary majority for Dimas' candidacy. New general elections might be convened if he fails, at a time when the Syriza coalition of radical left parties and movements hostile to austerity under the Greek bailout is in the lead in the polls. This political uncertainty has led to falls in the stock market over recent days in both Greece and elsewhere in Europe.
Pierre Moscovici travels to Athens. As promised when he took up office, Economic, Monetary and Financial Affairs and Taxation Commissioner Pierre Moscovici will travel to Athens on Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 December in his first foreign trip. He will meet with the governor of the Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras, in Athens, along with the Greek finance minister, Gikas Hardouvelis, and employer and trade union representatives. He will also visit work on the Athens metro system and the extension of the port of Pireus. (MB)