To the economic crisis Greece adds the political one. Prime Minister George Papandreou has convened a meeting for this morning Emergency Council of Ministers, while in the afternoon it will meet the Pasok parliamentary group, the ruling socialist party. According to reports from the Ana press agency, the convocation was solicited by several socialist deputies. Two of them announced today that they will not support the Executive in the confidence vote scheduled for Friday. Papandreou would thus lose the majority in Parliament, being able to count on 150 of the 300 deputies.
The disagreements arose after the criticisms made by several members of the majority of the premier's proposal to hold a referendum on the European rescue plan for the country. A consultation which, after last night's summit between Papandreou, Merkel and Sarkozy, should rather focus on the country's possibility of leaving the Eurozone.
The Minister of Finance, Evangelis Venizelos, stated that the Greek country's membership of the Eurozone "is a historic achievement for the Greek people, which cannot be questioned and cannot depend on a referendum". The Minister of Development, Michalis Chryssohoidis, also called for the European bailout plan to be ratified quickly by Parliament.
The possibility of early elections in Greece stands giving breath to the European stock exchanges, all positive in the late morning. According to investment bank analysts Merrill Lynch, “in these hours the market is driven by press headlines about Greece and that's it. The speculation about the Greek prime minister continues: our prediction is that on Friday the government will give no confidence and there will be early elections in December. And that means no referendum".
