Greece's new leaders announced a trans-Atlantic roadshow on Monday to try to persuade sceptical lenders to give them more time to repay the country's massive debt, as hopes faded for any real progress on the issue at this week's European summit. Unexpected medical problems will prevent Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and incoming Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos attending the June 28-29 summit in Brussels.
The problems also forced the postponement on Monday of the first meeting between the new government and Greece's "troika" of international lenders. Samaras's government, an unlikely alliance of right and left that emerged from a June 17 election, has promised angry Greeks it will soften the punishing terms of a bailout saving them from bankruptcy in exchange for deep economic pain.
Euro zone paymaster Germany has already rejected major concessions. Berlin signalled on Monday that Europe would wait for the troika's report on Greece before taking any decisions on how to adjust the bailout package to compensate for weeks of political paralysis and a deeper than expected recession. A new date for the troika visit has not been set.
Samaras, 61, emerged from hospital on Monday with a bandage over one eye, two days after undergoing surgery to repair a damaged retina. He was under orders not to fly or make the long road trip to Brussels, doctors said. Rapanos, a mild-mannered banker reported by Greek media to have a history of ill-health, will be discharged on Tuesday after being rushed to hospital on Friday, before he could be sworn in, complaining of abdominal pain, nausea and dizziness.
The 64-year-old underwent a gastroscopy and colonoscopy, an official at the Hygeia Hospital told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The tests, "showed everything is completely normal." Speaking to Mega TV, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said Rapanos had told Samaras on Friday, after being offered the job, that he had a "chronic situation" that he had learned to live with and that it would not effect his ability to do the demanding and stressful job.