New Democracy’s Meimarakis says he will try to form government

Greece's conservative opposition leader Vangelis Meimarakis said on Friday he would try to cobble together a government with parties from the current parliament to avoid a negative impact from early elections.

Meimarakis, who heads the New Democracy party, was formally handed a three-day mandate by the country's president to try to form a new government earlier on Friday after Alexis Tsipras stepped down as prime minister on Thursday.

He told reporters snap elections expected on Sept. 20 "had no use" and he would try to form a government "in order to avoid, at this moment, all the negative effects that this election could create for a very long time."

Meimarakis is due to meet parliamentary speaker Zoe Constantopoulou at 1 p.m. to discuss if there are ways of forming a government from the current Parliament.

The New Democracy leader even suggested that he would be willing to accept a unity government led by the current Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis.

The first party leader Meimarakis is due to meet is To Potami’s Stavros Theodorakis, on Friday afternoon.