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Samaras Warns of Euro Exit Risk as Greek Campaign Starts
Samaras Warns of Euro Exit Risk as Greek Campaign Starts
Greece’s political parties embarked on a flash campaign for elections in less than three weeks that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said will determine the fate of the country’s membership in the euro currency area.
Samaras used a Jan. 2 speech to warn that victory for the main opposition Syriza party would cause default and Greece’s exit from the 19-member euro region, while Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party would end German-led austerity. Der Spiegel magazine reportedChancellor Angela Merkel is ready to accept a Greek exit, a development Berlin sees as inevitable and manageable if Syriza wins, as polls suggest.
The high-stakes run-up to the Jan. 25 vote returns Greece to the center of European policy makers’ attention as they strive to fend off a return of the debt crisis that wracked the region from late 2009, forcing international financial support for five EU countries. While Greek 10-year bond yields rose 16 basis points to 9.41 percent today from a post-crisis low of 5.57 percent in September, the relative improvement in yields from Italy to Ireland suggests that the contagion has been contained. The benchmark ASE stock index fell 2.4 percent to 816.46 at 11:42 a.m. in Athens.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Greece dissolves parliament for January vote – Europe – Al Jazeera English
Greece dissolves parliament for January vote – Europe – Al Jazeera English.
Greece’s parliament has been dissolved ahead of an early election that will be warily watched by markets and international creditors concerned that the austerity-weary country could starting unwinding unpopular fiscal reforms.
It was parliament’s failure to choose a new president in three successive votes this month that triggered the snap poll.
As its first order of business, the new chamber must elect a successor to 85-year-old Karolos Papoulias, whose five-year term ends in March
A statement from the chamber on Wednesday confirmed the election would be held on January 25, as announced on Monday by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and the new parliament would reconvene on February 5.
Greece On The Edge After Second Failed Presidential Vote | Zero Hedge
Greece On The Edge After Second Failed Presidential Vote | Zero Hedge.
A week after the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, was unable to push through his nominee for president, Stavros Dimas, in a vote in parliament that needed 200 votes to pass, hours ago the second presidential vote took place and just like last week it again failed to secured the needed 200 votes, with just 168 lawmakers voting for the designated appointee. This means that in the third and final voting round next week, on December 29 – a trading day where bad news will propagate like wildfire in the absence of any market liquidity and means Kevin Henry will have to work overtime buying ETFs – New Democracy’s Samaras has to find (or bribe) another 12 votes or else Greece is facing a snap election where the anti-bailout/anti-austerity leftist Syriza party is expected to win, and set off a chain of events that may result in Greece being kicked out of the Eurozone at least if the jitters seen during the summer of 2012 are any indication.
Then again, judging by the absolute non-reaction by the market, it seems that not an algo cares any longer if Greece is or isn’t part of the Eurozone, and/or if peripheral European bond yields trade with the implied ECB monetization premium or are allowed to trade at fair value, well into double-digit yield territory.
In the meantime, the PM is starting to sweat:”I hope in the final vote for president we will avert a national catastrophe,” Greek PM Antonis Samaras told reporters in Athens today after the failed second round vote. By “national catastrophe” he, of course, means allowing the majority to express its opinion.
Here is what Bank of America had to say via Bloomberg:
Greek election uncertainty fuels concerns over eurozone stability | World news | The Guardian
Greek election uncertainty fuels concerns over eurozone stability | World news | The Guardian.
Early elections with the potential to destabilise the eurozone could be called in Greece next year, after the country’s 300 MPs failed to elect a president in their first round of voting.
In a ballot of MPs that disappointed government officials, 160 lawmakers backed Stavros Dimas, the conservative-led coalition’s candidate and former European commissioner.
“There are another two rounds ahead of us,” Antonis Samaras, the prime minister, said, emerging from the parliament after the vote. “I hold hope that a president will be elected. The conditions are difficult for the country, and I am certain that deputies are aware that the country must not enter troubled times.”
Earlier in the day, the embattled leader had warned that failure to elect a head of state could prove fatal for the country’s future in the eurozone.
