Greece’s new caretaker government was sworn in on Friday as the country prepares early elections next month, the third time Greeks will go to the polls this year.
Vassiliki Thanou, a top judge and the country’s first female prime minister, will lead the country until the election, which is expected to take place on 20 September, AP reported. Her predecessor, Alexis Tsipras, stepped down last week following a rebellion by members of his leftwing Syriza Party who objected to the conditions of Greece’s third international bailout.
The new cabinet may be in power for less than a month, but it will have to oversee the implementation of several austerity measures on which the new bailout depends.
Giorgos Houliarakis, an academic who was part of Greece’s negotiating team during the talks with its creditors, becomes finance minister, and the veteran diplomat Petros Moliviatis becomes foreign minister, a position he has held twice in the past.
Tsipras, who resigned barely seven months into his four-year term, has said he needed a stronger mandate to implement the tough austerity measures accompanying the $96-billion bailout.
The first major opinion poll since the election was called, showing that Syriza remained the most popular party, but its approval rating has slipped since early July, before a referendum in which Tsipras convinced Greeks to reject its creditors’ reform proposals.
Tsipras has ruled out a coalition with any of the center-right or center-left parties if he fails to win an absolute majority, meaning he would face problems forming a government unless a party that failed make it into parliament last time wins more than 3% of the vote.
