PM Karamanlis Fails to Win Consensus

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis met with opposition party leaders yesterday in Athens to discuss the government's plan for handling the financial crisis. Unfortunately, no such consensus was reached. George Papandreou, who leads the largest opposition party of PASOK, used the opportunity to call for early elections.
This is politics as usual in Greece. Instead of coming together to deal with the financial crisis that is having a devastating effect on the country, the party leaders spend their time placing blame instead of fixing the problem. There is no doubt that Karamanlis' government is corrupt, as the riots in December highlighted. If an early election is called PASOK will most likely win; for now, however, the parties need to come to some sort of consensus or they will allow Greece to slip even further down the economic scale of the EU.