Greece’s caretaker premier takes oath

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – Greece’s caretaker prime minister, who was appointed by the president on Wednesday after no party could form the government following the May 21 elections, took oath on Thursday, local media reported.

Ioannis Sarmas, former president of the Greek Court of Audit, took the oath in the presidential palace in the capital city of Athens, the state-run AMNA news agency said.

He, then, met incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his office to officially take over.

Ioannis Sarmas will appoint the interim Cabinet, which will be sworn in tomorrow at noon, the agency reported.

Sarmas has been president of the Court of Auditors since November 2019 and will remain as the caretaker prime minister until the general election, which is scheduled to be held on June 25.

With all the votes counted on Monday, the New Democracy party won 40.79% – twice the main opposition SYRIZA’s 20.07%. Socialist PASOK came in third at 11.46%, followed by Greek Communist Party with 7.23%. The far-right, populist Greek Solution party came in fifth with 4.45%.

Former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned the mandate on Monday, saying he wanted fresh polls for his New Democracy to form a single-party government.

On Tuesday, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition party SYRIZA, and Nikos Androulakis, leader of the social-democratic party PASOK turned down the mandates, expressing their inability to form a coalition government.