Greek conservative leader, Antonis Samaras, was sworn in as prime minister on Wednesday at the head of a three-party coalition that is tasked with carrying out the country's harsh European-led bailout.
In remarks shortly after his swearing-in ceremony, Mr Samaras said his new cabinet would immediately get to work tackling Greece's economic crisis that has pushed the economy into a deep recession and sent jobless rates to record highs. The agreement to form a coalition followed closely-fought June 17 elections in Greece—the second vote in as many months—that were widely seen as a de facto referendum on the country's bailout and, by extension, Greece's future inside the eurozone.
The new government faces many hurdles, with a central administration threatened by a cash crunch within weeks, an economy in free fall, and an angry public exhausted by two years of austerity measures. At the same time, it must work to bring Greece's derailed fiscal targets back on track after weeks of political paralysis. The new government must find €11.6 billion of new austerity measures the country's creditors demand, which could further inflame public opinion.
The new government plans to ask other eurozone countries for an extra two years to meet Greece's fiscal targets, in an effort to ease the pain of Greece's adjustment programme, while the three parties have also agreed among themselves that there should be no further cuts in pensions and salaries, and that the new government should try to ease some of the financial burden on over-indebted households.
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