Greece yesterday unveiled a caretaker Cabinet of technocrats tasked with organizing the cash-strapped nation’s second elections just six weeks after an inconclusive vote sent jitters across the eurozone.
The temporary team led by 67-year-old Greek Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos, head of the nation’s top administrative court, is made up of mainly prominent university professors, a retired general and a respected diplomat.
Greece’s political limbo has sent the euro and European stock -markets plunging, with little guarantee that the new vote set for June 17 will produce a viable government that will implement a massive EU-IMF rescue package.
Officials from the EU and the IMF, which are all that stands between Greece and a disorderly debt default — and a possible exit from the eurozone — have warned that no new funds will be released if progress on pledged reforms falters.
Greece’s new Cabinet was sworn in yesterday, with George Zannias, formerly head of the state’s council of economic advisors and a key negotiator in Greece’s landmark debt rollover, appointed finance minister.
Petros Molyviatis, an 83-year-old retired diplomat, returns to head the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs after a stint from 2004 to 2006, while the former head of the Greek army general staff Frangos Frangoulis has been named minister of national defense.
The caretaker administration was appointed after Greece’s political parties failed to cobble together a coalition following the May 6 elections, which saw a voter backlash against austerity and in which no clear victor emerged.
“The new battle begins,” conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras told party cadres. “It will determine whether Greece will remain in Europe, a Europe that is itself changing.”
Many Greeks are in despair after two years of salary and pension sacrifices which have failed to bring the promised economic benefits, triggering strikes and sometimes violent protests.
Radical left-wing party Syriza, which is vehemently opposed to what it brands “barbaric” austerity measures and has threatened to tear up the bailout deal, is favorite to win after coming second in the May 6 election.
Syriza’s 37-year-old leader Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday accused the EU and German Chancellor Angela Merkel of “playing poker with European people’s lives.”
Tsipras told the BBC that if the “disease of austerity destroys Greece, it will spread to the rest of Europe.”
The turmoil has raised fears among Greece’s international creditors that structural reforms pledged in return for the latest 240 billion euro (US$300 billion) bailout will be delayed or even scuppered.
“It is clear to all that our homeland is going through difficult times. We must safeguard its prestige and assure a smooth transition,” Pikrammenos said on Wednesday.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS