Samaras to address MPs as one deputy refuses support
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is due to speak today to his MPs for the first time since he agreed for his party to join a unity government last week.
However, Samaras faces the possibility of having to eject from his party one of his deputies who has declared he will not support the new administration.
Lawmaker Panos Kammenos made it known over the weekend that he would not back the interim government led by Prime Minister Lucas Papademos in a confidence vote on Wednesday.
ND sources said it is possible that Samaras will choose to force Kammenos to leave the conservative party.
Samaras, who is due to address his parliamentary group at 1 p.m., is expected to stress that New Democracy achieved the four targets it wanted through the formation of the short-term coalition.
As the ND leader has already stated, those targets were: to remove George Papandreou from the premiership, to ensure that the referendum the ex-prime minister planned did not go ahead, to ensure that elections will take place on February 19 and for an interim government to sign up to a new EU-IMF bailout.
It is not known if Samaras will address the issue of having to sign a commitment to the terms of the bailout, as requested by the European Commission.
