Prime Minister George Papandreou struggled to hold on to power after Greece’s largest opposition party rebuffed his overtures to form a national government, raising the prospect of elections that could delay aid needed to prevent default.
Opposition leader Antonis Samaras rejected sharing power with Papandreou and called on the premier to quit. Papandreou, 59, scrapped a referendum on an accord with the European Union to avert a split in his party before a confidence vote scheduled for midnight tonight.
“I never excluded any topic from the discussion, not even my own position,” Papandreou told lawmakers in Parliament. “I am not tied to a particular post. I repeat I am not interested in being re-elected but just in saving the country.”
Papandreou’s inability to resolve the political gridlock pushes the country closer to the first default by a European Union nation even as his scrapping of the referendum averted potential ejection from the 17-member euro zone. European Commission President Jose Barroso said he expected a government of national unity will conclude the EU agreement before Greece runs out of funds.
