November 8, 2011
Greece’s two main political parties were poised late Tuesday to name economist Lucas Papademos as the country’s new prime minister, Greek media reported, but last-minute disagreements appeared to be delaying the announcement.
The composition of a power-sharing cabinet remained unsettled, and Greek politicians expressed indignation Tuesday at pressure from European Union leaders to end the drawn-out negotiations and guarantee that the new government would support a European bailout plan.
Under the proposed deal, Papademos, 64, a respected former vice president of the European Central Bank, would lead Greece until February elections. But European hopes dimmed Tuesday that the two antagonistic political parties could work together to resolve the country’s debt crisis. Already, politicians appeared to be jockeying for advantage in the upcoming elections by avoiding too close an association with the unpopular bailout plan.
“I believe that we are now close to an agreement with New Democracy,” the main opposition party, Prime Minister George Papandreou said Tuesday at what may have been his final cabinet meeting. Papandreou has pledged to resign as soon as the new government is announced, and he bade farewell to his ministers at the meeting, the newspaper Athens News reported.
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