Alexis Tsipras

Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has rejected calls for early elections by the leader of opposition radical leftist party Syriza Alexis Tsipras.

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Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Monday rejected calls by leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras for snap polls, accusing the opposition chief of seeking to destabilize the country amid the first signs of recovery, and expressing his conviction that Parliament will elect a president early next year despite the odds.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras called on the government on Monday to hold snap elections, before Parliament is due to vote for a new president of the republic in February.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras are due to hold separate meetings with Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Monday.

Tsipras is due to meet Papoulias in the early afternoon, while Samaras will go to the presidential mansion later in the day.

SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras was expected to meet with Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras on Thursday. According to sources the meeting had been originally scheduled for Friday, but was nearly cancelled following reports that Stournaras was expected to meet with To Potami founder, former journalist Stavros Theodorakis, on Thursday.

Leftist opposition leader Alexis Tsipras will meet with Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras on Friday, according to reports.

Tsipras, who reports said requested the meeting, wants to discuss the results of the recent European Central Bank stress tests that included the country's four systemic lenders.

Leftist SYRIZA’s spokesman Panos Skourletis and the head of Alexis Tsipras’s political office, Nikos Pappas, on Thursday testified before a prosecutor probing claims that entrepreneurs close to the government were gathering money to bribe MPs into backing the coalition’s candidate for presidential elections early next year.

Greece has returned from the brink of collapse, said Prime Minister Antonis Samaras Monday, while lauding the country’s ability to keep going through the damaging effects of the crisis.

“There will be no Weimar scenario for Greece... Greece is back,” Samaras said in a speech at the Democracy Under Pressure forum organized by Kathimerini and the International New York Times.

SYRIZA’s attempt to force a parliamentary discussion about whether Greece should hold a referendum over the privatization of its state electricity monopoly, the Public Power Corporation (PPC), looks likely to fail despite the opposition party garnering some support on Thursday.

By Alexis Papachelas

Greeks like their drama. But they fail to grasp how dangerous it can be at crunch time. Greek political leaders so often let words slip out without realizing the consequences. Sometimes they regret them but it is too late.