ATHENS (Reuters) – In a land of ancient myths, modern Greeks have created some of their own about their near-bankrupt country’s future as an integral part of a Europe that will never kick them out.

Solemn warnings from abroad that Athens cannot stay in the euro while rejecting the terms attached to the billions offered to pull Greece out of its financial hole are widely disbelieved in a land that considers itself the envy of foreigners.

However bad their prospects, many Greeks seem to think that since money to bail them out was found in the past, it will be found again, whatever politicians say.

Nor do they believe that Europe will simply cast them loose, despite growing signs that Greece is heading for the exit from the single currency and towards the economic and social catastrophe that would follow.

“There’s a lot of money in this country, they just need to tax the rich and it would solve so many problems,” said seamstress Argiro Maniati, 55.

Working furiously at her sewing machine surrounded by tall piles of mended clothes her customers can’t afford to collect, Maniati fully embraces the myth that Greece’s membership of the euro can never die.

Like many Greeks who punished mainstream parties in a fruitless May 6 election that has brought Greece to the edge of a political abyss, she thinks politicians have exaggerated the threat of euro expulsion to scare up votes for failed policies.

Athens (Reuters) – “Gentlemen, we are finished,” said the patrician President, calling an abrupt halt to two hours of baiting and cat-calling between furious Greek politicians. “I’m starting to get upset myself now. We are finished.”

The final collapse of talks to forge a new Greek government triggered repeat elections and fears of a chaotic exit from the euro zone. But it is the manner of that collapse, the acrimony and rancour cited by Karolos Papoulias, that bodes ill for efforts after June polls to pull Greece back from the brink.

“It was a complete madhouse,” a source at the socialist PASOK party told Reuters after their leader, Evangelos Venizelos, returned from the May 17 showdown. “The discussion was unbelievable.”

Similar florid accounts emerged from other quarters.

When conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, 60, deserted a technocrat government to force May 6 elections, he was confident of a mandate for austerity measures demanded by European capitals for a 130 billion euro bailout package.

That calculation failed dramatically.

Voters infuriated by grinding poverty, spending cuts and corruption, punished Samaras and fellow mainstream party leader Evangelos Venizelos. L eftist Alexis Tsipras, 37, emerged with the power to block them. Greece, he said, could ditch its spending cuts and renounce its debts to EU partners, yet enlist their help in keeping the euro currency some 80 percent of Greeks cherish.

Athens (Reuters) – “Gentlemen, we are finished,” said the patrician President, calling an abrupt halt to two hours of baiting and cat-calling between furious Greek politicians. “I’m starting to get upset myself now. We are finished.”

The final collapse of talks to forge a new Greek government triggered repeat elections and fears of a chaotic exit from the euro zone. But it is the manner of that collapse, the acrimony and rancor cited by Karolos Papoulias, that bodes ill for efforts after June polls to pull Greece back from the brink.

“It was a complete madhouse,” a source at the socialist PASOK party told Reuters after their leader, Evangelos Venizelos, returned from the May 17 showdown. “The discussion was unbelievable.”

Similar florid accounts emerged from other quarters.

When conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, 60, deserted a technocrat government to force May 6 elections, he was confident of a mandate for austerity measures demanded by European capitals for a 130 billion euro bailout package.

That calculation failed dramatically.

Voters infuriated by grinding poverty, spending cuts and corruption, punished Samaras and fellow mainstream party leader Evangelos Venizelos. Leftist Alexis Tsipras, 37, emerged with the power to block them. Greece, he said, could ditch its spending cuts and renounce its debts to EU partners, yet enlist their help in keeping the euro currency some 80 percent of Greeks cherish.

ATHENS/PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) – Attempts to form a government in Greece collapsed on Tuesday, jolting financial markets at the prospect leftists opposed to the terms of an EU bailout could sweep to victory and nudge the euro zone crisis into a dangerous new phase.

The turmoil in Athens sent waves around other troubled members of the 17-nation European single currency area. The euro slipped below $1.28 while 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”.

In Athens, a spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said his efforts to broker a compromise on a cabinet of technocrats to steer the country away from bankruptcy had failed, nine days after an inconclusive general election. A caretaker government will now be formed pending a new vote probably in mid-June.

“For God’s sake, let’s move towards something better and not something worse,” Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after party leaders met the head of state.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece will hold a new election after politicians failed to form a government on Tuesday, nine days following an inconclusive vote, prolonging a political crisis that pushes it closer to bankruptcy and exit from the euro.

After a third day of failed talks with political leaders, a spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said the process of seeking a compromise had been declared a failure and a new vote must be held.

He did not immediately give the date for the new vote, but elections rules suggest it will be in mid June. A caretaker government would be formed on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

“For God’s sake, let’s move towards something better and not something worse,” Socialist party leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after the meeting. “Our motherland can find its way, we will fight for it to find its way.”

Greece remains without a government since its inconclusive election left parliament split between supporters and opponents of a 130 billion euro bailout package reviled by Greeks for imposing deep wage, pension and spending cuts.

Polls show the leftist SYRIZA party, which rejects the bailout and placed second in last week’s vote, is now on course to win, a result that would give it an automatic bonus of 50 seats in the 300-seat parliament.

European leaders say that they will cut off funding for Greece if it rejects the bailout agreed in March, which would mean bankruptcy and all but certain exit from the European single currency.

ATHENS, May 15 (Reuters) – Greece will hold a new election after politicians failed to form a government on Tuesday, nine days following an inconclusive vote, prolonging a political crisis that pushes it closer to bankruptcy and exit from the euro.

After a third day of failed talks with political leaders, a spokesman for President Karolos Papoulias said the process of seeking a compromise had been declared a failure and a new vote must be held.

He did not immediately give the date for the new vote, but elections rules suggest it will be in mid June. A caretaker government would be formed on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

“For God’s sake, let’s move towards something better and not something worse,” Socialist party leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after the meeting. “Our motherland can find its way, we will fight for it to find its way.”

Greece remains without a government since its inconclusive election left parliament split between supporters and opponents of a 130 billion euro bailout package reviled by Greeks for imposing deep wage, pension and spending cuts.

Polls show the leftist SYRIZA party, which rejects the bailout and placed second in last week’s vote, is now on course to win, a result that would give it an automatic bonus of 50 seats in the 300-seat parliament.

European leaders say that they will cut off funding for Greece if it rejects the bailout agreed in March, which would mean bankruptcy and all but certain exit from the European single currency.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s president will try to coax party leaders on Monday into backing a government of technocrats to avert a new election, but the talks seemed unlikely to break a stalemate that threatens to drive the country towards bankruptcy and out of the euro zone.

Greece remains without a government nine days after an inconclusive election left parliament split between supporters and opponents of a 130 billion euro bailout package reviled by Greeks for imposing deep wage, pension and spending cuts.

After each of the three biggest parties failed to form a coalition and two additional rounds of mediated talks proved fruitless, political leaders returned to the presidential mansion at 1100 GMT for the latest stab at a compromise.

Few were holding out hope of a breakthrough. Two leftist parties key to any coalition immediately rejected President Karolos Papoulias’s offer of a government of non-partisan experts or technocrats to steer Greece out of trouble.

“I told the president that a government by technocrats or personalities would suggest the failure of politics, and raised my objection,” Democratic Left party leader Fotis Kouvelis said.

SYRIZA, a party of anti-bailout leftists who are surging in popularity, called it just another scheme to impose the austerity demanded by the EU and IMF lenders but rejected by voters.

The only clear backers for such a government appeared to be the sharply weakened Socialist party and, in an about-face, the conservatives. They had sought the end of the current six-month-old government – made up of politicians although led by technocrat Lucas Papademos – by insisting on early elections but now fear even more punishment from voters in a repeat vote.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos will make a last- ditch attempt to form a government on Thursday and avoid a new election after voters rejected a bailout deal and pushed Greece into a political crisis.

Chances are slim Venizelos can clinch a deal after both the conservatives and leftists tried and failed to cobble together a coalition in three days of talks following Sunday’s election, when voters spurned big parties and their austerity policies.

The political deadlock prompted European threats to eject Greece from the euro, while impatient governments withheld part of the latest tranche of rescue funds to be paid to Greece on Thursday.

New elections in 3-4 weeks loom as Athens, due to run out of cash in June, needs to impose fresh measures in exchange for funds.

“I will continue the effort because it is in the nation’s interest,” Venizelos told reporters. “Prolonging this uncertainty only hurts the country and its economy, and in the end, the weakest and the unemployed.”

But the mood was somber when radical Left Coalition leader Alexis Tsipras abandoned his efforts after meeting main political leaders and a raft of new groups propelled into parliament by public anger at mainstream parties. The biggest party, New Democracy, tried and failed to form a workable coalition within hours on Monday and there seemed to be little ground for compromise between the pro- and anti-bailout parties, split almost down the middle in the new parliament.

Tsipras demanded that New Democracy and PASOK, which ruled Greece for decades and were ravaged in Sunday’s poll, tear up the pledges they made in return for the bailout, which they rejected out of hand.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s Left Coalition party will get an historic chance on Tuesday to form a government opposed to the country’s EU/IMF bailout, after the mainstream conservatives failed to cobble together a coalition following shock election results.

The odds are stacked against it, raising the prospect of fresh elections.

Alexis Tsipras, aged 37, whose party was catapulted into second place by voters angry with austerity, will take on the tough task of wooing small groups into forming the first leftist government in Greece’s modern history.

Greeks plunged their country into political limbo in Sunday’s election, angry with the harsh cuts dictated by the bailout deal which is keeping Greece afloat but has also brought the worst unemployment and recession in decades.

By spurning the two main parties – New Democracy and PASOK – voters shrugged off the risk of bankruptcy and the threat to Greece’s future in the euro although government officials warned that cash was running out fast.

If political leaders fail to form a coalition, Greece risks new elections as soon as next month, plunging the country into fresh uncertainty.

“The country is heading at high speed towards catastrophe,” the Kathimerini daily said in an editorial. “If a national salvation government is not formed in the coming days, new elections will become inevitable.”

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s Left Coalition party will get an historic chance on Tuesday to form a government opposed to the country’s EU/IMF bailout, after the mainstream conservatives failed to cobble together a coalition following a shock inconclusive election.

Alexis Tsipras, whose party was catapulted into second place by voters angry with austerity, will take on the tough task of wooing small groups into forming the first leftist government in Greece’s modern history.

Greeks plunged their country into political limbo in Sunday’s election, angry with the harsh cuts dictated by the bailout deal which is keeping Greece afloat but has also brought the worst unemployment and recession in decades.

By spurning the two main parties, voters shrugged off the risk of bankruptcy and the threat to Greece’s future in the euro as officials warned that cash was running out fast.

On Monday, President Karolos Papoulias gave a three-day mandate to form a coalition to Antonis Samaras, whose conservative New Democracy party won the biggest share of the vote. But Samaras admitted defeat within the day after rejections from several party leaders.

Tsipras, who believes the bailout is leading Greece to bankruptcy rather than averting it, is next in line and will receive the presidential mandate on Tuesday to try to rally the fragmented groups of the left.

“We want to create a government of leftist forces in order to escape the bailout leading us to bankruptcy,” said Tsipras, the country’s youngest political leader at 37, after rejecting an offer to cooperate from Samaras. “We’re not going to let in through the window what Greek people kicked out the door.”