Greece has called a snap election to be held next month, launching a campaign that may produce no clear winner and threaten implementation of the international bailout plan that saved the nation from bankruptcy.
Prime minister Lucas Papademos announced the May 6th date today after meeting the president and his interim cabinet, which he said had done its job by securing the bailout and a landmark debt restructuring last month.
"Greece is in the middle of a difficult path," he said in a televised address to the nation. "The choices we make will not only determine which government will be formed after the election but Greece's course in decades to come."
Mr Papademos, a former central banker called in last year when a socialist government collapsed, told his ministers he hoped a new parliament, which must pass a slew of tough reforms to secure payments under the bailout, would convene by May 17th.
"The last months proved that faced with great problems and huge risks we can cooperate and overcome our differences," he said.
But the first elections since the debt crisis exploded at the end of 2009, dragging the country into its worst recession since World War II and shaking the euro, may be followed by protracted coalition negotiations.
The conservative New Democracy and the Socialist PASOK parties - which backed the Mr Papademos government - have lost public support for endorsing the bailout plan, and may not win enough votes to form a new coalition.
Opinion polls show that small parties which oppose the steep wage and pension cuts imposed by the European Union and IMF in return for aid are gaining ground. A public angry with the cuts has taken to the streets over the past two years in protests that have often turned violent.
Party leaders have already started unofficial campaigning, with conservative leader Antonis Samaras, whose party is ahead in all opinion polls, telling supporters over the weekend that he would raise low pensions and create jobs.
"Greece is now the worst condition it has ever been during times of peace," Samaras said on Wednesday. "Greek people will have the chance to determine their future in this election."
Recent opinion polls show his New Democracy party would win between 18 and 25 per cent of the vote, ahead of PASOK's 11-16 per cent but far behind the socialists' sweeping 43.9 per cent in the pre-crisis election of October 2009.
Mr Samaras has said repeatedly that he is aiming for an outright majority and has warned that he might trigger a repeat election if he does not get enough votes.
Both New Democracy and PASOK back EU/IMF reforms such as opening up of closed professions, slashing the public sector workforce by a fifth and cutting pensions, but Mr Samaras said he would renegotiate some parts of the plan.
Reuters