Greece concluded the provisional political transition this Friday with the swearing in of the ministers of the new interim government, whose objective will be to ensure the management of the country for a month until new parliamentary elections are held.
The main parties failed to agree on a coalition after last Sunday’s elections, in which New Democracy (ND), the political force of outgoing conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, obtained more than 40% of the vote, giving rise to a provisional government headed by Judge Ioannis Sarmas, until now president of the Court of Accounts.
Sarmas is accompanied in the management of the government by another 15 people, who were sworn in at the presidential palace.
According to the online edition of the Greek daily Kathimerini, the spokesman for the new interim executive, Ilias Siakantaris, told reporters that the sworn ministers will work “without any political affiliation”, stressing that they will be “fully functional”. .
The interim executive has a strong technocratic profile, with Theodore Pelagidis, a former deputy governor of the central bank, taking over the finance ministry.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be occupied by the diplomat Vassilis Kaskarelis, while the Defense portfolio has been assigned to Alkiviadis Stefanis, a former officer of the Armed Forces who was a deputy minister.
Until the date of the new vote, which, in principle, should produce a clear political majority in the Greek parliament, the political parties return to the electoral campaign.
Ioannis Sarmas, 66, president of the Court of Auditors, was appointed by the president of the Greek Republic, Katerina Sakellaropulu, after the failure – intentional by the main parties – of attempts to form a coalition government.
The senior magistrate, who in particular has a doctorate in human rights from Paris, complied with the obligation to form a provisional executive, which will have exclusive power to apply the law and “organize elections.”
The 300 elected deputies will meet for the first time next Sunday in parliament, which will be dissolved the following day when the date of the elections is officially announced.
The vote will most likely take place on June 25, as the now former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants.
Ioannis Sarmas, whose term will end after the next vote, succeeds Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the winner of the May 21 elections.
Despite the victory, Mitsotakis failed to achieve an absolute majority as was his goal and therefore immediately appealed for new legislative elections.
Mitsotakis hopes that a bonus of up to 50 parliamentary seats will be awarded to the party with the best result in that second round, which will have a different system of vote counting, an advantage that could allow it to obtain an absolute majority, according to your calculations.
Left-wing former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party won only 71 parliamentary terms, acknowledged suffering “a painful and unexpected blow” on Sunday with only around 20% of the vote, less than half that of his main opponent.
He promised, however, to “fight a new battle” against an “all-powerful” right-wing government, “which would be bad for democracy.”
Source: TSF
