World News | Greek Caretaker Prime Minister Sworn In, to Head Government Until New National Elections
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Senior judge Ioannis Sarmas was sworn in Thursday as Greece's caretaker Prime Minister who will head the country until new national elections are held in about a month.
Athens, May 25 (AP) Senior judge Ioannis Sarmas was sworn in Thursday as Greece's caretaker Prime Minister who will head the country until new national elections are held in about a month.
Sarmas, 66, took over from centre-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on May 21 but was unable to form a government. Although his New Democracy party beat the leftwing main opposition Syriza by 20 points — the biggest margin in 50 years — the one-off electoral system left it five seats short of a majority in the 300-seat Parliament.
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Syriza and the third-placed Pasok Socialists also proved unable to form a coalition. Therefore new elections will be held, with June 25 seen as the likeliest date, under a different electoral system which gives the first party up to 50 extra seats in Parliament. Mitsotakis hopes that vote will secure him a governing majority.
Sarmas will head a 16-member caretaker government, in which a former Greek ambassador to the US, Vassilios Kaskarelis, will be Foreign Minister. The key finance ministry will be headed by economist Theodore Pelagidis, deputy governor of Greece's central bank. (AP)
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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)