Greek President Violated Law Asking Opposition to Form Government

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos violated the country’s constitution by enabling the opposition to attempt forming a new government as soon as possible, the speaker of the Greek parliament said in a statement on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Pavlopoulos granted the leader of Greece's official opposition and head of the center-right New Democracy party Vangelis Meimarakis a mandate to form a new government.

According to the Article 37 of the Greek constitution, “the proposal for the assignment of a mandate must occur within three days of the Speaker's or his Deputy's communication to the President of the Republic about the number of seats possessed by each party in Parliament; the aforesaid communication must take place before any mandate is given.”

However, according to Zoi Konstantopoulou, the speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, the president did not notify her about his decision to grant the mandate to Meimarakis, casting doubt on the step's legitimacy.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras from the left-wing Syriza party announced his resignation to clear the way for early general elections in a bid to secure support for his stand on the new 86-billion-euro ($95-billion) bailout package, approved last week.

Under the Greek constitution, Meimarakis has three days to determine if his party can create a viable government before a caretaker regime is put in place.

According to media reports, if Meimarakis fails, Greece could hold snap parliamentary elections as early as on September 20.