Greece named a new cabinet to end two months of political deadlock on Thursday and said it would aim to revise the terms of an unpopular EU-IMF bailout deal but without risking its eurozone membership. The announcement came a day after conservative leader Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister following a narrow victory over radical leftists who still won a quarter of the vote with their call to tear up the bailout deal.
A joint statement by the conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties in the coalition said the aim was "to revise terms of the loan agreement without endangering the country's European course and its place in the euro." The new team also pledged to honour Greece's targets on deficit reduction, debt control and structural reforms following landmark elections on Sunday.
"The goal is to create the conditions to take the country out of the crisis for good and out of dependence on loan agreements in the future," it said. 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 aid an economy now in a fifth year of recession as the new finance minister.
The new foreign minister will be New Democracy's Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former diplomat and ex-Athens mayor who was previously defence minister. Most new ministers were expected to be formally sworn in later on Thursday. The coalition is led by Samaras's New Democracy party and will have the backing of the socialist Pasok party and the small Democratic Left party, although both junior partners did not include their lawmakers in the cabinet.
Some analysts said the move was designed to avoid responsibility for enforcing contested austerity measures, others that it was a way of making the government more popular by using technocrats instead of politicians. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso hailed the new line-up saying he was "reassured" by the government's parliamentary support.
"I believe that this sends a clear signal of Greece's determination to honour its commitments and stay in the euro," he said. The Eurogroup of finance ministers meanwhile gathered in Luxembourg, for an expected battle on the Greek and Spanish fronts as well as a huddle on runaway borrowing costs for Italy and a last-minute Cypriot cry for help.
Greece is hoping for a two-year extension to 2016 for its recovery plan and a further loan of up to 20 billion euros ($25 billion), a finance ministry source said on Wednesday, according to the state-run Athens News Agency.
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