NEWS

Anti-bailout parties lack majority, Kammenos says

Greece?s anti-bailout parties do not have the necessary majority to form a government, the leader of the nationalist party Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, said on Wednesday following talks with the head of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) who has a mandate, until Thursday night, to form a new administration.

?SYRIZA?s 52 MPs, Independent Greek?s 33 and Fotis Kouvelis? 19 do not add up to the minority of 120 seats needed in view of the Communist Party?s refusal,? Kammenos said, referring to the Democratic Left leader who has backed Tsipras.

Kammenos added that he had ?lengthy discussions of issues of national importance? with Tsipras including the bilateral dispute between Athens and Skopje over the official name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the issue of illegal immigration, noting that there were ?differences of opinion.?

Kammenos said that if socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy, which signed Greece?s debt deal with creditors in February, were to revoke their support for the agreement, then his party would be open to cooperation within a broader unity government following talks with President Karolos Papoulias. Kammenos added another two preconditions — that the two parties agree to delineate an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for Greece.

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