Greece crisis: Caretaker cabinet sworn in

Greece has sworn in the interim cabinet that will take charge of the country until new elections on June 17.

The 16 ministers were sworn in this morning at the presidential palace in Athens, the BBC reported.

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They are led by senior judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos, who was named caretaker prime minister yesterday.

The finance minister is George Zannias, who according to the Wall Street Journal has been the finance ministry's chief economist since the beginning of the crisis. 

That makes him highly familiar with the terms of Greece's two bailout packages, which he was involved in negotiating, the Journal noted.

Other cabinet members include Antonios Manitakis, a professor of constitutional law, who was made interior minister, and foreign minister Petros Molyviatis, a retired diplomat who has served as foreign minister once before.

The new cabinet will have limited powers, its main role being to steer Greece into next month's polls. 

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The Greek parliament, made up of the seven parties that won seats in the May 6 vote, was also sworn in today as required by the constitution, the New York Times said. It will be dissolved again tomorrow, however, in preparation for the June vote.

Those elections, in which anti-austerity bloc SYRIZA is projected to place first, will be decisive for whether Greece sticks to the terms of its bailout deals and is able to remain in the euro.

"The struggle that begins tomorrow, ahead of new elections, is not about any one party and its performance in the polls," the Times quotes Antonis Samaras, the head of the conservative New Democracy party, as telling legislators. "It's about whether Greece will remain in Europe — a Europe that itself is changing — or if Greece will be forced to leave Europe, losing a lot and risking even more."

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