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| Eurozone crisis live: Greece braced for new elections as deadlock continues | Eurozone crisis live: Greece braced for new elections as deadlock continues |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 8.42am: European stock markets are a mixed bag in early trading, but there's no sign of panic. Here's a round-up: | |
| French CAC: - 41 points, or -1.29%, at 3172 German DAX: - 20 points, or -0.3%, at 6548 Spanish IBEX: + 13 points, or + 0.2%, at 70674 FTSE 100: - 6 points, or -0.1%, at 5648 | |
| In London, traders have returned to their desks after Monday's May Day bank holiday (yes, we know 1 May was last Tuesday. Put it down to British eccentricity). As city veteran David Buik commented: | |
| We expect a ponderous start with volatility and nervousness being generated from Greece's very unhealthy political and economic outlook. | |
| 8.24am: New Greek elections could come as early as 17 June, the Financial Times reckons, if a coalition cannot be agreed in the next few days. | |
| In the reader comments, meljomur asks: | |
| How easy is it to vote in Greece? Does the system make it "challenging" for those who are more likely to vote for the fringe parties? | |
| Those of you in Greece (are you there, Kizbot?) will have a better idea than me about the intricacies of Greek elections. The election results suggest that 'fringe parties' overcame any such hurdles, with Pasok and New Democracy taking such a pasting at the polls. | |
| 8.13am: Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza, holds Greece's political future in his hands today after landing second place in last weekend's eelction. | |
| The Radical Coalition of the Left, as Syriza is also known, ran on a policy of opposing Greece's current aid plan. Tsipras has vowed to freeze payments to creditors and renegotiate part of the €130bn package that was finally agreed in March. | |
| Tsipras and Antonis Samaras may have been all smiles as they met yesterday, but the two men failed to find common ground (not surprisingly, as Samaras's New Democracy party supports the aid deal). | |
| As Helena Smith wrote, Samaras took to national TV last night to admit that the talks had failed: | |
| Attempts to form a new government in Athens have collapsed after the leader of the centre-right New Democracy party announced that he was unable to form a coalition in the crisis-hit country. | |
| "We did whatever was possible," Antonis Samaras told Greeks in a national address, saying he had reached out to every party with the exception of the far-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn), which was catapulted into parliament in Sunday's election. | |
| 8.00am: If you missed Monday's action (it was a bank holiday in the UK), then you can catch up with all the action in our live blog from yesterday, anchored by my colleague Julia Kollewe. It was an exciting day - continental stock markets fell sharply at the start of trading, before recovering later in the day as traders and analysts digested the implications of the elections in France and Greece. | 8.00am: If you missed Monday's action (it was a bank holiday in the UK), then you can catch up with all the action in our live blog from yesterday, anchored by my colleague Julia Kollewe. It was an exciting day - continental stock markets fell sharply at the start of trading, before recovering later in the day as traders and analysts digested the implications of the elections in France and Greece. |
| 7.51am: Today's eurozone news agenda will be dominated by the negotiations in Athens. Syriza, also known as the Coalition of the Radical Left, will sit down at the negotiating table and try to persuade other parties to join it in government. | 7.51am: Today's eurozone news agenda will be dominated by the negotiations in Athens. Syriza, also known as the Coalition of the Radical Left, will sit down at the negotiating table and try to persuade other parties to join it in government. |
| Otherwise, it's a quiet data on the economic front - apart from a survey of German industrial production that will show how Europe's largest economy performed in March. A few bond auctions are also taking place, which will let us gauge the mood in the financial markets | Otherwise, it's a quiet data on the economic front - apart from a survey of German industrial production that will show how Europe's largest economy performed in March. A few bond auctions are also taking place, which will let us gauge the mood in the financial markets |
| • Greek coalition talks: ongoing • German industrial production for March: 11am BST / noon CEST • Austria (€1.21bn), the Netherlands (€2bn-€3bn)+ Belgium bond auctions: morning | • Greek coalition talks: ongoing • German industrial production for March: 11am BST / noon CEST • Austria (€1.21bn), the Netherlands (€2bn-€3bn)+ Belgium bond auctions: morning |
| 7.45am: Good morning, and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the eurozone debt crisis. | 7.45am: Good morning, and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the eurozone debt crisis. |
| Today, the threat of new elections in Greece looms over the eurozone, as political parties struggle to form a new government. Syriza, the left-wing party, will hold talks with rivals today, after New Democracy admitted it could not build a coalition. | Today, the threat of new elections in Greece looms over the eurozone, as political parties struggle to form a new government. Syriza, the left-wing party, will hold talks with rivals today, after New Democracy admitted it could not build a coalition. |
| If a deal can't be reached, a second election would be inevitable. | If a deal can't be reached, a second election would be inevitable. |
| The deadlock in Athens comes as speculation swirls of a multi-billion euro bank bailout in Spain. | The deadlock in Athens comes as speculation swirls of a multi-billion euro bank bailout in Spain. |
| While in France, François Hollande will be working on his new government - as Europe watches to see how the new French president puts his opposition to the fiscal treaty into action. | While in France, François Hollande will be working on his new government - as Europe watches to see how the new French president puts his opposition to the fiscal treaty into action. |
| We're expecting a calmer day in the financial markets after yesterday's gyrations, but that could change as the situation in Greece becomes clearer. | We're expecting a calmer day in the financial markets after yesterday's gyrations, but that could change as the situation in Greece becomes clearer. |