Greek caretaker PM hands in his resignation

Samaras met with Syriza chief Alexis Tsipras who formally rejected the offer of a coalition with either New Democracy or socialist PASOK, adding that if the mandate is given to SYRIZA, his party will reject that too.

Meanwhile, leader of the Democratic Left party Fotis Kouvelis said his party is prepared to partake in a 'national salvation government', as Samaras calls it.

We spoke to SYRIZA's Panos Skourletis about both the electoral result and the likely upcoming coalition of pro-memorandum forces in Greece.

Even though PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has said his party will not involve itself in a coalition unless SYRIZA joins in, thus putting pressure on Tsipras to accept Samara's mandate. Besides this statement, Pasok is likely to join a coalition regardless of SYRIZA's formal rejections.

So far, neither conservative Samaras nor socialist Venizelos have explicitly mentioned how they plan to renegotiate parts of Greece's memorandum agreement. The new government will have a chance to push for a radical restructuring of the agreement but only if it channels Syriza's influx in the matter. Judging by the extreme criticism against Syriza by the two parties pre-electoraly, this looks highly unlikely.