Antonis Samaras sworn in as Greece prime minister

Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party, was on Wednesday evening sworn in as the new prime minister of Greece.

The presidential office said the Greek leader of the centre-right New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, has become the new prime minister of the country, RIA Novosti reported.
Samaras's New Democracy party won 129 seats of 300 in the June 17 parliamentary elections.

The socialist party Pasok (with 33 seats) and the Democratic Left party (with 17 seats) formed the new coalition government with the New Democracy party.


A new coalition government has been formed in Greece, which includes the centre-right New Democracy party, the socialist party, Pasok, and the Democratic Left party, said Evangelos Venizelos, head of Pasok party.

"New Democracy, Pasok and Democratic Left Party have agreed to take responsibility for reviewing the loan agreement and the final overcoming of the crisis," Venizelos said.

A deal had been struck to form a new Greek coalition government, reported BBC quoting the parties involved as saying.

Antonis Samaras of New Democracy, the party which narrowly won Sunday's elections, met President Karolos Papoulias to confirm the deal.

The cabinet will be sworn in Thursday.

The latest developments come after Greeks were forced to return to the polls Sunday, after parties failed to agree a government on the results of the first election May 6.

Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession, endured about seven weeks of political uncertainty which threatened to spark turmoil throughout the eurozone and beyond.

Greece got an initial EU-IMF package worth 110 billion euros (89 billion pounds; $138 billion) in 2010, then a follow-up this year worth 130 billion euros. The country has also had 107 billion euros (86 billion pounds; $135 billion) of debt, held by private investors, written off.