After a tense three days in Parliament with coalition government and opposition MPs exchanging allegations and setting political dilemmas from the stand in Parliament, the vote of confidence requested by the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took place late on Friday.

As expected, the coalition government received 155 votes, which includes the recently-returned Nikos Kaklamanis to the ranks of New Democracy, without suffering any loses in the vote. While the Prime Minister was hoping to see some of the 23 independent MPs to support the government, 18 voted against the government, 2 voted “present” and 2 abstained from the vote.

Nevertheless, Mr. Samaras appeared confident on his way out from Parliament stating that the next general elections would take place in 2016 and warning SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras that he would not allow the presidential election to “trigger instability”. The opposition leader countered that the government’s time is running out and called Mr. Samaras to not hold the country hostage in an extended 4-month election period.