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News > World

Greece's Tsipras Appoints New Cabinet

  • The appointments come after Tsipras led his party to victory in elections over the weekend.

    The appointments come after Tsipras led his party to victory in elections over the weekend. | Photo: Reuters

Published 22 September 2015
Opinion

Greece's new government looks much like the old.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appointed a cabinet Tuesday stacked with loyalists, and a finance minister favored by international creditors.

Former Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has been re-offered his position by Tsipras. A Greek economist that was born in the Netherlands coming from one of the top military-ancestry families in Greece, Tsakalotos secured a controversial bailout from international creditors earlier this year, after his predecessor Yanis Varoufakis left the government over disagreements over austerity.

"The markets will see this positively," said Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities in Athens told Reuters earlier in the day.

Other key cabinet positions that remained the same included the migration ministry, which will continue to be headed by Yiannis Mouzalas. The appointments come after Tsipras led his party to victory in elections over the weekend.

With over 99.9 percent of the votes counted, Syriza garnered 35.4 percent of the ballots, while its closest rival the Conservative New Democracy won 28.10 percent of the vote and 75 seats in parliament.

The victory returns Tsipras to the post of prime minister despite his support for a deal with the country’s creditors that implies the people of Greece will continue to live under austerity measures.

“The mandate we receive from the Greek people is crystal clear, so we can put an end to the vicious past that governed us so long,” Tsipras told a cheering crowd a few hours after the polls closed. “We will continue, from tomorrow, the struggle we started months ago. We will turn the clock on Europe. Europe will not be same after tomorrow.” Tsipras also vowed to eradicate corruption.

He further thanked the young people who voted for his party. According to polls, 40 percent of registered voters between 18 and 26 voted for Syriza.

RELATED: Greece: Criticisms and Counter-Criticisms from Within Syriza

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