Editing History of modern Greece (section)

===Coalition government===
{{Main|Antonis Samaras}}

Following the [[Greek legislative election, May 2012|May 2012 legislative election]] where the [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] party became the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament, [[Antonis Samaras|Samaras]], leader of ND, was asked by [[President of Greece|Greek President]] [[Karolos Papoulias]] to try to form a government.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20120507/news_20120507_56_838693.htm |title=Samaras tries to form Greek coalition |publisher=Rthk.hk |access-date=14 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810231637/http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20120507/news_20120507_56_838693.htm |archive-date=10 August 2013}}</ref> However, after a day of hard negotiations with the other parties in Parliament, Samaras officially announced he was giving up the mandate to form a government. The task passed to [[Alexis Tsipras]], leader of the [[Coalition of the Radical Left|SYRIZA]] (the second-largest party) who was also unable to form a government.<ref>{{cite news|last=Petrakis |first=Maria |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-07/samaras-says-fails-to-form-greek-government-hands-back-mandate.html |title=Greek Government Mandate to Pass to Syriza as Samaras Fails |publisher=Bloomberg |access-date=14 May 2012}}</ref> After [[Panhellenic Socialist Movement|PASOK]] also failed to negotiate a successful agreement to form a government, emergency talks with the President ended with a new election being called while [[Panagiotis Pikrammenos]] was appointed as prime minister in a [[caretaker government]].

Voters once again took to the polls in the widely watched [[Greek legislative election, June 2012|June 2012 election]]. New Democracy came out on top in a stronger position with 129 seats, compared to 108 in the May election. On 20 June 2012, Samaras successfully formed a coalition with PASOK (now led by former finance minister [[Evangelos Venizelos]]) and [[Democratic Left (Greece)|DIMAR]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18524252|title=Antonis Samaras|access-date=20 June 2012 |work=BBC News|date=20 June 2012}}</ref> The new government would have a majority of 58, with SYRIZA, Independent Greeks (ANEL), Golden Dawn (XA) and the Communist Party (KKE) comprising the opposition. PASOK and DIMAR chose to take a limited role in Samaras' Cabinet, being represented by party officials and independent technocrats instead of MPs.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18531604|title=PM Antonis Samaras announces cabinet|date=21 June 2012|access-date=22 June 2012|work=BBC News}}</ref>