Setting the date for a
new vote comes 10 days after a national election where voters punished
the major parties for harsh budget cuts, leaving no party able to form a
government.
A caretaker administration led by a senior judge will run the country until the new vote.
The interim prime
minister, Panagiotis Pikrammenos, will go to the office of President
Karolos Papoulias to receive his official instructions Wednesday, Greek
state television reported.
As Greek politicians met
Wednesday to set the new election date, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said she regretted the suffering of the Greek people in the face of
harsh government budget cuts.
"It's very bitter,
obviously," she said of the austerity measures that have left some
Greeks struggling to pay for food or utilities.
But, she said, "Sacrifices had to be made. ... I think these are necessary measures that had to be taken."
Merkel, a champion of
forcing governments to balance their budgets in order to promote stable
economic growth in Europe, did offer an olive branch to Greece.
"Europe needs to show solidarity and help, particularly with growth, unemployment and development," she said.
Merkel was speaking
after Greeks withdrew hundreds of millions of euros from banks,
prompting the president of Greece's central bank to warn that a panic
was possible, but not taking place.
Greeks pulled about 800
million euros out of the banking system Tuesday, President Papoulias
said, citing Central Bank Governor George Provopoulos.
"There is, of course, no
panic, but there is fear that could develop into panic. He also said
that the strength of banks is very weak at the moment," Papoulias said,
citing the bank governor.
The Greek debt crisis threatens the stability of the European Union's single currency.
Europe is worried that
Greece could fail to make debt payments as early as next month. And that
could force the country out of the euro, the currency used by 17
European Union countries.
Merkel said she was working to keep Greece in the eurozone.
"I start with the
assumption that Greece wants to stay in the eurozone, but part and
parcel of that is that Greece fulfills its commitments," she said.
She refused to be drawn into talk about what would happen if Greece did not meet its debt obligations.
What if Greece exits the eurozone?
The European Central
Bank and International Monetary Fund have been pumping money into Greece
to keep the country in the euro, but they have demanded that the Greek
government slash spending to get the funds.
Radical leftist leader
Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party reaped the benefits of voter
frustration with the austerity measures, urged Greeks on Tuesday to
continue resisting "the parties of the bailout."
"They asked us to leave
the country without any hope," he said, arguing that the May 6 election
had left the terms of the bailout "null and void."
New Democracy leader
Antonis Samaras, meanwhile, said his party would "keep fighting for a
developing Greece within Europe" and "against those who say they want to
get Greece out of Europe."
His party narrowly came
in first in the May 6 elections, but opinion polls since then have
suggested that Syriza would finish in first place in a new election.
Analysts have warned that Greece must not remain without a government for long.
"If no government is in
place before June when the next installment (of loan money) from the
European Union and International Monetary Fund is due, we estimate that
Greece will run out of money sometime between the end of June and
beginning of July, at which point a return to the drachma would seem
inevitable," Bank of America/Merrill Lynch wrote in a report released
Friday. watch Video
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