ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Latest on Greece’s election of a new government (all times local):
1:40 p.m.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has congratulated Kyriakos Mitsotakis on his victory in Sunday’s Greek general election while cautioning that the highly indebted country still had a tough economic task ahead.
In a letter to the new prime minister, Juncker praised the Greek people for what they had to endure during its recent financial crisis which almost saw the country ejected from the euro currency area four years ago.
“A lot has been achieved,” Juncker said. “But a lot remains to be done.”
Juncker told Mitsotakis he had “full confidence in your personal capacity and the capacity of the Greek people to open a new, brighter chapter in the history of your country.”
___
1:15 p.m.
Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister, a day after his resounding win over left-wing Alexis Tsipras, who led the country through the tumultuous final years of its international bailouts.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party won 39.8% of the vote, giving him 158 seats in the 300-member parliament, a comfortable governing majority. Tsipras’ Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, garnered 31.5%.
Mitsotakis, 51, arrived at the presidential mansion for the official swearing-in ceremony accompanied by his wife and three children, with the ceremony conducted by Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos. He was to then head to the prime minister’s office for a handover of duties, and was expected to name his cabinet later in the day.
___
10:30 a.m.
Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister later Monday after a resounding win over left-wing Alexis Tsipras, who led the country through the tumultuous final years of its international bailouts.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party won 39.8% of the vote, giving him 158 seats in the 300-member parliament, a comfortable governing majority. Tsipras’ Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, garnered 31.5%. The extremist right-wing Golden Dawn, Greece’s third largest party during the height of the financial crisis, failed to make the 3% threshold to enter parliament.
Mitsotakis will have to move fast to deal with the myriad of problems still plaguing the Greek economy. Europe’s finance ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday and will be discussing Greece, which still has stringent fiscal targets to meet.
