New Greek cabinet to be sworn in

The new Greek cabinet, containing some familiar faces as well as newcomers, is to be sworn in at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
The announcement came a day after conservative leader Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister following a narrow victory over radical leftists with his promise to keep Greece in the euro at landmark elections on Sunday.

The most closely-watched appointment was that of Vassilis Rapanos, chairman of Greece’s biggest lender National Bank of Greece, who will spearhead efforts to rescue an economy on life support as the new finance minister.

Rapanos was a key player at the economy ministry when Greece joined the euro in 2001 and is seen as close to the socialist Pasok party, one of two junior partners in the coalition with Samaras’s New Democracy agreed Wednesday.

The government will also have the backing of the moderate Democratic Left but both it and Pasok did not contribute their own lawmakers to the cabinet.

A joint statement by the conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties said the government aimed “to revise terms of the loan agreement without endangering the country’s European course and its place in the euro” during its four-year term.

Ekathimerini.com