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Greece
has a government, the head of the country's socialist party said
Wednesday, ending nearly seven weeks of political uncertainty which
threatened to plunge Europe deeper into a financial crisis with global
repercussions, AP reports.
Evangelos Venizelos, a former finance minister and
head of the socialist PASOK party, said details of the three-party
coalition government were still being worked out and were expected to be
finalized by the end of the day.
Discussions were still ongoing on the new government's policy platform and on who the ministers would be.
The development is expected to calm fears that a
protracted political crisis in debt-struck Greece could have led to the
country being forced out of the joint European currency. Such an event
could have dragged down other financially troubled Eurozone nations and
hammered the global economy.
PASOK came third in Sunday's election, which was won
by the conservative New Democracy party. No party won enough votes to
form a government on its own, leading to three days of coalition talks.
The runner-up in Sunday's ballot, the anti-bailout
radical left Syriza party, has refused to join any government that will
implement the terms of Greece's international bailout loans.
The coalition that will be formed will be between New Democracy, PASOK and the small Radical Left party of Fotis Kouvelis.
Greece will be represented at the upcoming meeting of
Eurozone finance ministers by outgoing Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias,
Venizelos said.
The meeting "will be the first big battle on the
revision of the bailout agreement the creation of a framework that will
allow us to move to positive growth and to combat unemployment which is
the big problem of Greek society," Venizelos said.
Although both Venizelos and New Democracy head
Antonis Samaras broadly support the country's bailout loans from other
European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund, they have
pledged to try renegotiating some of the harsh austerity terms taken in
return.
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