ATHENS New ministers in Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ government were sworn in on Saturday after a reshuffle expelled dissidents from his cabinet and began a new phase of negotiations for a third bailout package.
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Analysts say that Tsipras will probably have to hold snap elections in the autumn, and that the reshuffle is merely designed to keep the government going until the bailout is finalised.
Alongside Lafazanis, leader of Syriza’s Left Platform, a faction that was bitterly opposed to the bailout, Deputy Labour Minister Dimtris Stratoulis and Deputy Defence Minister Costas Isychos also lost their jobs.
On Friday, the European Union (EU) formally approved a short-term loan of 7.16 billion euros (7.77 billion United States dollars) to debt-wracked Greece as Athens and its creditors are working to reach an agreement on the new bailout package.
The banks were closed on June 29 to stop people spooked by a possible “Grexit” – Greece exiting the eurozone – from emptying their accounts or moving their money to safehavens overseas.
The German Parliament cleared the way for talks on a third bailout after Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that failing to try would be reckless and sow chaos.
The developments, along with the Greek parliament’s approval early Thursday of creditor-demanded austerity measures, contributed to a positive initial assessment from Europe’s bailout fund. In a statement, the European Stability Mechanism said it approved a “decision to grant, in principle, stability support to Greece in the form of a loan program”.
New members of Greece’s cabinet take a religious oath during a swearing in ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Saturday, July 18, 2015.
“I am taking over a very hot potato, I must handle it with love and cool it down if I can”, Haikalis said. But he probably will have to depend on supportive votes by opposition politicians, which could severely weaken his government or, in the direst scenario, cost him his job.
Banks in Greece will reopen Monday after a three-week closure amid the country’s deepening debt crisis.
Among the 149 lawmakers in Mr Tsipras’s left-wing Syriza party, 32 voted against the deal – including former finance chief Yanis Varoufakis – and six abstained.
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Greek Labor Minister Panos Skourletis is set to become energy minister to replace Panagiotis Lafazanis, one of the hardline lawmakers in the ruling Syriza party who rebelled in Thursday’s bailout vote in parliament, a government source said on Friday.
