Baku-APA. he head of Greece's Supreme Court has become the country’s prime minster, taking the helm of a caretaker administration to organize snap elections in the debt-ridden country, APA reports quoting Press TV.
Vassiliki Thanou took her oath of office during a ceremony at the presidential mansion in the capital, Athens, on Thursday, telling the outgoing premier, Alexis Tsipras, that her administration is likely to face challenges.
“As the circumstances evolve, I feel this government will be called upon to face (other) critical issues such as migration,” the 65-year-old top judge told Tsipras.
According to the United Nations estimates, some 160,000 people have landed on Greece’s shores since the beginning of the year, with 50,000 arriving in the past month alone. Most of the migrants are fleeing hardships inflicted on them and their families due to conflicts in countries like Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
Greece’s presidential office said that Thanou’s new administration will be sworn in on Friday.
Tsipras resigned and called for snap elections last week amid a rift in his Syriza party. Disagreements emerged after dissident lawmakers denounced Tsipras for what they called reneging on his anti-austerity promises in the face of an international bailout, which brought him to power in the January elections.
The official date for the country’s general election is to be officially announced by the country’s president by the end of the week.
Eurozone finance ministers approved Greece’s third debt bailout in mid-August after Greek lawmakers approved the bailout deal with its international creditors in an attempt to prevent the cash-strapped state from defaulting on its huge debts.
The decision to renew the bailout program garnered harsh criticism within the ruling party, and dozens of Syriza MPs voted against the deal.
Thanou, who is Greece's first female premier, has been strongly opposed to austerity measures in Greece and told European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a letter in February that austerity cuts were “annihilating” the Greek people.
Greece received two bailouts in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of 240 billion euros (USD 272 billion) from the troika of international lenders – the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – following the economic crisis that hit Greece in 2009.
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