ATHENS — Greece’s new prime minister will not be well enough to travel to a critical EU summit in Brussels after undergoing an eye operation, the government said Sunday.
Antonis Samaras, 61, underwent surgery for a detached retina for nearly four hours Saturday, just three days after being sworn in at the head of a three-party coalition government formed after two inconclusive general elections.
The physician treating the prime minister, Dr. Panagiotis Theodosiadis, has ruled out him being able to travel to Brussels for the Thursday-Friday European Union summit, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said.
“Before the surgery, [Mr. Samaras] said, ‘You do your job, and I do mine, which is to go to the EU summit,’ ” Dr. Theodosiadis said the prime minister. “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 certainly can’t walk,” Dr. Theodosiadis said.
The summit could prove to be a key test of Greek leaders’ pledges to renegotiate some terms of the country’s international bailout.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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