(Transcript from World News Radio)
Greece will go to the polls next month in an early vote, amid speculation that the debt-ridden country's international rescue package could be in danger.
The election comes amid disagreements between Greece and its lenders, the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Peggy Giakoumelos reports.
Greece's talks with its bailout creditors have been stalled for months amid disagreements over required new spending cuts.
The International Monetary Fund says it's now suspending the talks on a new disbursement of financial aid until a new government is formed.
The early election bas been called after Greek MPs failed in a third attempt to elect a new president.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has called on the public to continue supporting his government in the new poll to ensure what he called, the smooth transition out of the country's crisis.
"I will ask as the constitution dictates the dissolvement of parliament and call elections as soon as possible, on Sunday January 25. Greece does not have time to lose. I sympathise with the anxiety of every Greek citizen, and I am here to guarantee the safe course of the country."
Mr Samaras came to power in 2012 in the midst of Greece's debt crisis, and ruled over a coalition government with socialists in order to get austerity measures passed.
Despite managing to bring the country back to growth this year after six years of recession, Greeks have been unforgiving of austerity reforms implemented in the past two years.
These included increased taxes and job cuts that were required in return for bailout loans by the EU and the IMF.
Greece's far-left Syriza party, led by Alexis Tsipras, is leading in the opinion polls, and is vowing to renegotiate the joint European Union-IMF bailout Greece needs to pay its bills and roll over its debt.
"Syriza and democracy are not a threat for Greece or for Europe. They are the hope for a viable exit from the crisis. In the last year Greece was chosen to be the guinea pig of austerity in order to exit the crisis, this was proven to be a failure and catastrophic, no goal succeeded. Now Greece needs to be the opposite experiment for Europe, the experiment for growth, social cohesion, and democracy."
Mr Tsipras says Syriza would put an end to the harsh austerity measures implemented by the Samaras government.
European Commission officials and EU partners have expressed concern over Mr Tsipras' talk of cancelling reforms and demands for a cut to Greece's debt.
Political analyst and Athens University professor, George Pagoulatos, says any new government will face many restrictions when it comes to the bail out package.
"Overall any Syriza government will be heavily constrained by the need to operate within the European and the eurozone framework, and the Syriza party has declared that it has no intention of moving the country outside the eurozone framework, so it seems to me that there will be some space of adjustment, and the adjustment will have to be rapid because the constraints will be quite strong from the beginning,"
Recent polls have shown although Syriza has kept its lead over the ruling centre-right New Democracy party, the advantage has narrowed steadily over the past few weeks.
Share
