ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s new prime minister will not be well enough after his eye surgery Saturday to travel to a critical European Union summit in Brussels, the government said Sunday.
Antonis Samaras, 61, underwent surgery for a detached retina for nearly four hours, just three days after being sworn in as the head of a three-party coalition government formed after two inconclusive general elections.
The prime minister’s doctor, Panagiotis Theodosiadis, has ruled out travel to Brussels for the EU summit Thursday and Friday, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said.
“Before the surgery, [Samaras] said, ‘You do your job, and I do mine, which is to go to the EU summit,’” Theodosiadis said of his patient. “I was hoping [Saturday] that he would announce he would not go because it was a very delicate operation. ... He needs to lie at a certain angle for a certain period each day, for at least a week. He can do meetings, but he certainlycan’t walk.”
Samaras will leave the hospital today, he said.
Samaras has appointed new Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos to head the Greek delegation at the meeting, Kedikoglou said.
The summit could prove a key test of Greek leaders’ pledges to renegotiate some terms of the country’s international bailout.
The so-called troika of Greece’s lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - are due to review the country’s fiscal situation and resume talks that had been put on hold during the country’s nearly two-month political deadlock.
Greece’s incoming finance minister, Vassilis Rapanos, also was hospitalized Friday after suffering a collapse. A hospital spokesman said he was expected to be dischargedeither late today or Tuesday after further tests. His illness delayed his swearing-in, so outgoing Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias will attend the summit.
Since May 10, Greece has been dependent on funds from two international rescue loan deals with other European Union countries and the International Monetary Fund, in return for which it imposed a series of deep spending cuts and tax hikes.
Anti-bailout parties made gains in Greece’s May 6 and June 17 elections, with Greeks furious at the drop in living standards as the country struggles through a fifth year of recession and unemployment that has reached more than 22 percent.
Samaras’ conservative New Democracy party tallied the most votes in both elections but not enough togovern alone.
Coalition talks collapsed after 10 days in May, leading to the second ballot.
New Democracy is now in a power-sharing government with longtime socialist PASOK rivals and the small Democratic Left.
On Saturday, the new government issued a policy statement that outlined what it aims to change in its bailout conditions, saying it would seek to repeal some taxes, halt layoffs and extend by two years the mid-2014 deadline for tough austerity measures.
Germany, the largest single contributor to the bailout, has repeatedly said Athens must stick to its austerity targets.
Information for this article was contributed by Juergen Baetz and Don Melvin of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/25/2012