Greece unveils new coalition

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras was sworn in yesterday as the Prime Minister of a new Greek coalition, as he took up the challenge of trying to revise the terms an unpopular EU-IMF bailout deal.

“With God’s help we will do everything we can to take the country out of the crisis,” the 61-year-old former foreign minister told reporters after a formal ceremony at the presidential palace that ended two months of political deadlock.

Mr Samaras warned Greece was in a “critical” situation, saying: “Tomorrow, I will ask the government to work hard to give tangible hope to the Greek people.

“I have the majority to form a long-term government of stability and hope,” he said, as the Greek economy struggles through a fifth year of recession.

Mr Samaras and his New Democracy party, the winners of an election on Sunday, are the senior partners in a coalition with the socialist Pasok party which will also have the parliamentary support of the small Democratic Left party.

The agreement comes after three days of intense international pressure for Greece to act quickly and get its reform programme back on track after an election that eased fears of an imminent euro exit for Greece. Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos said the new government would begin “a major battle” to revise the bailout at an EU summit in Brussels next week.

Outgoing premier Panagiotis Pikrammenos told the new Prime Minister: “You have many battles ahead of you, both inside and outside Greece.”

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis also said he expected the cabinet to “release the country from the painful terms” of the multi-billion loan.

New Democracy took 129 of the 300 parliamentary seats including an extra 50 seats given to the winner and Syriza took 71 seats. Pasok took 33 and Democratic Left won 17, which gives the new government a majority of 29 seats.

The radical leftist anti-austerity Syriza party came a close second in the election, winning more than a quarter of the vote and the new government will face growing public pressure to ease the austerity conditions in Greece.

Syriza said the new coalition “does not convince us that it will be able to substantially renegotiate the terms of the loan agreement or that it intends to cast doubt on the prevailing neo-liberal politics of austerity in Europe”.

The government’s first priority will be to restore contact with international auditors and resume the flow of loans that was suspended ahead of the election.

The IMFis already pressing to send a team of experts to Greece as soon as possible to examine “shortfalls” over the past two months.

Foreign creditors like Germany have stressed that they are only willing to give Greece more time to meet a deficit reduction target currently set at 2014 but will not change the actual substance of the bailout deal agreed in February.

Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker echoed Germany’s position: “There can be no discussions about changing the substance of the agreements but we can by all means talk about extensions.”