Syriza leader Alexis
Tsipras (bottom right) and other opposition MPs applauded the result of the
vote
Shortly after the vote, Mr Samaras announced that elections would take place
on 25 January.
"The country has no time to waste," he said in a televised address.
Mr Dimas, a former European commissioner, secured the votes of only 168 MPs,
the same number he had won during the second vote last week.
The government failed to attract the support of two smaller parties,
Independent Greeks and Democratic Left, which it needed to win the vote.
The defeat is regarded as a major setback for the prime minister, as well as
for eurozone countries that worked hard to bring Greece back from the brink in
2010.
Since then €240bn (£188bn; $290bn) has been spent helping Greece pay off its
debts. In return for two major bailouts, the EU and IMF demanded stringent
austerity measures.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras praised the vote as a "historic day for Greek
democracy" and Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos said the era in which Mr
Samaras and his coalition partners had "surrendered" Greece's sovereignty was
now over.
A party colleague of Mr Samaras, Dora Bakoyiannis, bitterly accused Syriza of
forcing the vote at the worst possible moment for the Greek economy.
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