Greece's New Coalition Government Sworn In, Gets to Work

ATHENS – Faced with the daunting task of trying to get Greece out from under its worst economic crisis since World War II, and with the backing of less than half of those who voted in the critical June 17 elections, the new coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, made up of his New Democracy Conservatives, their rival PASOK Socialists, and the tiny Democratic Left, was sworn in late on June 21 and set to work with an immediate meeting.
A joint statement by party leaders 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. Samaras got his rivals, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos – who had joined him in supporting austerity measures demanded by international lenders in return for bailouts – and Democratic Left head Fotis Kouvelis, who did not, to support his government, but they refused to allow any of their members to become ministers, giving what some analysts said was half-hearted backing.
Still, Venizelos and Kouvelis had a say in some of the appointments for the new Cabinet which faces the challenge of helping Samaras govern a country in a deep economic crisis and recession as he tries to renegotiate terms of the harsh conditions insisted upon by the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) in return for a first bailout of $152 billion. A second, pending rescue package of $173 billion was on hold until after the elections to see if anti-austerity parties would prevail and try to re-do or renege on the terms of the bailouts.
New Democracy eked out a 2-percentage point win over the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) whose leader, Alexis Tsipras, had vowed to tear up the memorandum with the Troika and restore pay and cut taxes, but Samaras warned that would have led to Greece being pushed out of the Eurozone of the 17 countries using the euro as a currency and into complete disaster, an argument that enough voters bought to bring him to power.
Venizelos and Kouvelis wanted the new Cabinet to include technocrats not beholden to any party, as well as politicians. Venizelos had to fight back a challenge from some of his Members of Parliament who coveted returning to ministerial posts they had enjoyed under former Prime Minister George Papandreou, who was hounded out of office last year after two years of protests, strikes and riots against austerity, and some had served in a shaky coalition that began with three parties after that but ended up as a New Democracy-PASOK hybrid.
The new cabinet has only one woman minister, Olga Kefalogianni, from New Democracy. She is from Crete, holds a law degree, and two Master’s Degrees, including one in International Affairs from Tufts University outside Boston, which has a chair named for former Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis.
The new Cabinet:
Prime Minister:Antonis Samaras