Mr Samaras is betting that if the euro crisis abates, then this calculation will change.
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Mr Samaras is now being sworn in as prime minister, with the cabinet to follow on Thursday.
Mr Samaras annoyed Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and other European conservatives by opposing Greece's first bail-out.
His efforts may be starting to show results, but Mr Samaras still has a long road ahead.
It helped that in Berlin Mr Samaras swallowed a sizeable chunk of humble pie before Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On Wednesday, Mr Samaras will meet Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg premier who heads the group of eurozone finance ministers.
Mr Samaras' expected plan to request a two-year extension on its austerity programme has provoked frustration among other European politicians.
Mr Samaras has come a long way since his centre-right New Democracy party scraped a narrow election victory in June.
Mr Samaras, whose New Democracy party is a member of the governing coalition, said any rebels would face being dropped as parliamentary candidates.
To accomplish anything at all, Mr Samaras will have to put aside a lifetime of rivalry and rise above the politics of patronage.
The two men also disagreed sharply on the timing of new elections, with Mr Papandreou seeking a delay of several months while Mr Samaras wanted them immediately.
Yet there is no obvious coalition partner for Mr Samaras apart from the right-wing Laos (People's) party under George Karatzaferis, now enjoying its first taste of power as a junior partner in Mr Papademos's government.
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The coalition, which is supported by Mr Samaras' conservative New Democracy, the Socialist Pasok and the Democratic Left, was agreed following elections on 17 June, which were called when an earlier vote failed to produce a viable government.
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Unlike Mr. Tsipras who has raised his tone, Mr. Samaras has lowered it, trying to appeal to reason rather than emotions, as is Mr. Venizelos, the leader of the ailing Socialist Party.
Mr. Samaras's colleagues said they were shocked by the deaths, given his years of experience.
Mr. Samaras's center-right New Democracy has been sharing power with the center-left Pasok party in a caretaker government since November.
"It was menacing and erratic and very difficult to see, " said Tony Laubach, a member of the Twistex team and colleague of Mr. Samaras.
"Collectively, that group had decades of experience, " said Matt Grzych, who worked alongside Mr. Samaras as a member of the Twistex team from 2009 to 2011.
Some analysts said Mr. Samaras might also try to lure the Democratic Left party into joining a coalition in order to build a bigger majority in Parliament.
Mr. Samaras first met with Alexis Tsipras, the leader of leftist Syriza, which has become the new force in Greek politics after campaigning on a fierce antiausterity ticket.
Fractionally more voters appear to have believed Mr. Samaras than believed Syriza's claim that Europe wouldn't dare to cut off Greece's financial lifeline for fear of financial chaos.
Mr. Samaras has been a staunch supporter of Greece's euro membership, even though he says he wants to loosen the austerity program to combat the country's deep recession.
Mr. Samaras will face his first test in the coming weeks, when he'll have to begin talks with bailout monitors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Speaking in a nationally televised statement, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras congratulated Mr. Samaras on his victory but indicated he wouldn't support a government that continues with Greece's tough program of austerity and structural overhauls, known here as the memorandum.
In the campaign, Mr. Samaras sought to turn the elections into a de facto referendum on the euro, saying a vote for austerity opponents Syriza would be tantamount to voting for a return to the drachma, Greece's former currency.
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