By Dina Kyriakidou and Paul Taylor
ATHENS/PARIS (Reuters) - Attempts to form a government in Greece collapsed on Tuesday, jolting
financial markets
at the prospect that leftists opposed to the terms of an EU bailout
could sweep to victory in a June election and tip the euro zone deeper
into crisis.
The turmoil in Athens sent shock waves around other troubled members of the 17-nation European single
currency area.
The euro slipped below $1.28, world stocks slid and Spanish and Italian
bond yields rose above the danger level of 6 percent as investors
scurried for shelter in safe haven German Bunds.
The tremors from Greece, compounding worries about
Spain's debt-laden banking system, ended any honeymoon for new French
President
Francois Hollande,
thrusting the growing risks to the euro zone to the top of the agenda
for his first meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel hours after
he took office.
In his inaugural address, the Socialist president called for a European pact to revive growth and temper German-driven
austerity measures, seeking to change the direction of euro zone economic policy.
"I will propose to our partners a pact that will tie
the necessary reduction of our public debt to the indispensable
stimulation of our economies," Hollande declared, saying Europe needed
"projects, solidarity and growth".
The French leader's aircraft was struck by lightning
shortly after takeoff from a military airport near Paris en route for
Berlin, forcing him to turn back and take a substitute plane.
In Athens, President Karolos Papoulias abandoned
efforts to broker a compromise on a cabinet of technocrats to steer the
country away from bankruptcy, nine days after an inconclusive general
election. A caretaker government will now be formed pending a new vote
probably in mid-June.
"We resisted in every way," said Alexis Tsipras, leader
of the hard-left SYRIZA party, which surged to second place in last
week's election on an anti-austerity platform and blocked any deal with
pro-bailout mainstream parties.
"We made the decision to not betray your hopes and your
expectations," said Tsipras, emboldened by opinion polls showing his
party could top the poll in a second vote. "Now it's time to complete
it: We will consign in the dustbin of history all the spent forces of
the past.
Euro zone finance ministers dismissed talk of Greece
leaving the single currency area as "propaganda and nonsense" on Monday.
But with hostility to EU/IMF-imposed austerity rising in Greece,
speculation about a possible state bankruptcy and euro exit is rattling
financial markets and won't go away.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said it was important to be
technically prepared for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro
zone, warning that such a move would be "quite messy" with risks to
growth, trade and financial markets.
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen openly discussed
the prospect, telling broadcaster MTV3: "If Greece were to leave the
euro it would probably not cause a significant financial crisis that
would have happened a couple of years ago.
"But on the other hand, we would have other problems.
What kind of impact would it have on European economic development, on
Spain's, Italy's economies, would market begin to speculate about other
euro countries leaving? Naturally it would have an impact on the
stability of Greek society."
MORE TIME?
Averting an immediate default, Greece made a key
payment to bondholders who rejected an earlier debt exchange, a move
likely to upset the vast majority of creditors who accepted just cents
on the euro in a historic bond swap in March.
The outgoing government opted to pay 435 million euros
($552 million) of a May 15 bond to investors who had refused to exchange
their debt, despite having insisted that those who rejected the swap
would get nothing.
Sworn in with all the pomp of the French Republic,
Hollande won support from Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD),
who vowed to use their parliamentary blocking power to delay ratifying a
European budget discipline treaty until Merkel accepts accompanying
measures to boost growth and jobs.
Hollande's inauguration with military honors, capped by
an open-topped motorcade ride up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de
Triomphe in a torrential downpour, marks a potential turning point in
the euro zone's debt crisis.
EU officials hope his election will revive proposals
for radical steps to overcome the debt crisis such as issuing joint euro
zone bonds, which Merkel has so far blocked.
Some policymakers believe it could also lead to heavily
indebted member states that are in the grip of a recession being given
more time to meet their EU budget balancing targets.
Markets and policymakers are watching the dialogue
between the conservative German chancellor and the centre-left French
leader for signs that they can overcome their differences on Merkel's
drive for austerity and lead the euro zone together.
In Berlin, the Social Democrats, invigorated by their
victory over Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in a major regional
election on Sunday, said growth measures must go beyond the structural
economic reforms advocated by the chancellor.
"That is not our definition of growth nor that of the Socialists in France," said SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel.
A senior Merkel ally, CDU parliamentary whip Peter
Altmaier, said that while he expected no concrete decisions to be taken
at the first Merkel-Hollande meeting, he was confident the euro zone's
two most powerful economies would reach a joint position on growth
measures in time for an EU summit next month.
"It is important that we study each others' proposals.
But I am sure that we will be able to agree a common Franco-German
approach by the end of June at the latest," Altmaier told Reuters in an
interview.
Despite the SPD's threat, Altmaier said he expected the
German parliament to approve the European fiscal compact before the
summer recess, which requires some opposition votes to provide the
necessary two-thirds majority.
"HOMER" AFTER "MERKOZY"?
Merkel and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who
left office on Tuesday, had dominated euro zone crisis management since
the debt turmoil began in late 2009, earning the nickname "Merkozy" for
their sometimes disputed leadership.
Her relationship with Hollande, which one French pundit
has already dubbed "Homer" perhaps due to its Greek challenge, may
initially be cool as they are from opposing political families.
But the chancellor has promised to welcome the
Socialist "with open arms" and the two calm, methodical leaders may be
better suited temperamentally than the calculating Merkel and the
impetuous, hyperactive Sarkozy.
Hollande has said he will press Berlin to lift its veto
on issuing common euro zone bonds to harmonize borrowing costs within
the currency area, or to allow the European Central Bank to lend
directly to governments.
Both ideas are "red lines" for the centre-right German
government, although Merkel has not ruled out euro zone bonds as a
long-term prospect if Europe takes more steps towards a tighter
political and fiscal union.
Surprisingly strong first quarter growth figures for
Germany relieved pressure on shares and the single currency on Tuesday,
but worries about the deepening impact of the euro area crisis and a
possible Greek exit kept demand for safe-haven assets strong.
The German economy grew 0.5 percent in the first three
months of the year, well ahead of forecasts due to a big rise in
exports, but weakness elsewhere in the region meant the euro zone
stagnated in the first quarter.
(Additional reporting by Catherine Bremer and Brian
Love in Paris, Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Jan Strupczewski
in Brussels and Richard Hubbard in London; Writing by Paul Taylor;
Editing by Giles Elgood and Janet McBride)
