It is likely that Greece will remain in the eurozone after the New Democracy party took the most seats in the June 17 general elections with 29.66 percent of the vote and will hold 129 of the 300 seats in the parliament, the TASR newswire reported.
The second highest number of the vote, 26.89 percent, went to Syriza party, which has criticized the international financial help as well as the austerity measures which Greece passed to receive the assistance, followed by the pro-European Pan-Helenian Socialist Movement (Pasok) with 12.62 percent of the votes, Independent Greeks (ANEL) with 7.5 percent of votes, Democratic Left (DIMAR) with 6 percent of votes and the Communist Party (KKE) with 4.5 percent of votes, TASR wrote.
The election results have been praised by several European politicians, international institutions as well as Slovakia’s Finance Ministry which expressed its support for forming a new government.
“Europe needs a success,” said Slovakia’s Finance Minister Peter Kažimír, as quoted by the SITA newswire. “Today, such a success is the majority decision of Greeks to continue in changing their country and to remain a member of the eurozone.”
The results of the parliamentary elections have also been welcomed by the two main leaders of the European Union, Herman van Rompuy, President of the Council of the EU and José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Both men hope that Greece will form a government in a short time, TASR wrote.
“We send our greetings to the courage and patience of the citizens of Greece,fully aware of the sacrifice which had to be brought in order to restart the national economy and ensure new, sustainable growth for the country,” they wrote, as quoted by TASR, in their joint statement released to the media.
The EU officials added that Greece deserves to stay in the eurozone and ensured the future government of the country that the EU will cooperate and support it in order to restore its economy.
Support for the Greek government and the will to cooperate was also expressed by members of the G7 group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), SITA wrote.
Source: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
