Samaras submits confidence vote request, ballot due on Friday

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras officially submitted a request on Monday for a confidence vote as Parliament resumed its regular sessions after the summer.

Samaras wrote to parliamentary speaker Evangelos Meimarakis to ask for the vote, which will be held at midnight on Friday. The debate leading up to the ballot is due to begin on Wednesday.

The government has 154 MPs but needs the support of only 50 percent of those MPs who will be present to win the vote. As nine Golden Dawn deputies are in pre-trial custody, this means the coalition needs just 146 votes, which it seems sure to gain.