Papademos sworn in to lead party-packed Greek cabinet

ATHENS, (Reuters) – Technocrat Prime Minister  Lucas Papademos took office on Friday to save Greece from  bankruptcy, heading a coalition cabinet filled with many of the  same politicians who led the nation into crisis and pushed the  euro zone to the brink of collapse.

Lucas Papademos

At a colourful swearing-in ceremony, black-robed Orthodox  priests, led by the Archbishop of Athens, blessed Papademos and  a cabinet dominated by the two main parties which had bickered  for four days before agreeing on the crisis coalition. Apart from Papademos, a former European Central Bank vice  president with no political experience, the cabinet’s main new  face is from the LAOS party — the first time the far right has  joined a Greek government since a military junta fell in 1974.

As politicians in Italy pushed through austerity measures  and contemplated an emergency government to stave off the crisis  creeping deeper into the euro zone, Papademos said his priority  would be to meet the terms of the country’s EU, IMF bailout and  pull Greece out of recession.  “The final result will depend much on whether we succeed in  stabilising the real economy, reining in unemployment and  setting the ground to revive the economy and gradually boost  employment in a relatively short time,” he told his governing  team in its first meeting.

“That’s why I would like to ask everyone to do his best in  the next coming days, weeks and months.”

The line-up includes Socialist party power broker Evangelos  Venizelos, who keeps the post of finance minister that he held  in Papandreou’s government.

Analysts said Papademos — a quiet academic economist — had  to assert his authority over a cabinet packed with the hardened  conservative and Socialist party politicians who took turns in  power for decades as Greece built up a huge debt it could not  manage, forcing an international bailout.

“Greece has a government that is the result of political  compromise among three parties. It is obvious that there was a  dealing of the cards,” said Costas Panagopoulos, head of ALCO  pollsters. “It all now depends on how the prime minister handles  them.”

CLEAR MANDATE,
 TOUGH TASK       

The interim government of national unity, which has a bumper  48 ministers and their deputies, plans to announce its platform  on Monday evening, then conduct a debate and win a confidence  vote in parliament by early next week.

It has a clear mandate that may not be so simple to  implement before it calls an early general election, tentatively  agreed for Feb. 19.

It has to push through parliament Greece’s second bailout  deal in as many years — a plan that includes fighting tax  evasion, selling off state companies and cutting the public  sector — to get hold of 130 billion euros in long term funds.

But Athens also needs money fast from its IMF and EU lenders  to meet big debt repayments due in December or face default,  bankruptcy and the danger of leaving the euro zone.