Kyriakos Mitsotakis assumed office as Greece's new Prime Minister. (Image via: Euronews)

Kyriakos Mitsotakis as Greece's New Prime Minister

ATHENS - On Sunday (7/7), Greece held a shotgun election to elect a new Prime Minister for Greece. The result of the election was the New Democracy Party (NDP), a center-right party, beat Syriza. The percentage showed that NDP won 39.85% votes while Syriza won 31.53%. While the third largest party, Golden Dawn, did not make it to the threshold.

As a result, the leader of Syriza and also the former Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipiras, had to leave the office for the new Prime Minister from NDP, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. A bit of history of Mitsotakis family, he is the child of the former Prime Minister of Greece (1990-1993), Constantine Mitsotakis.

On Monday, Mitsotakis attended the inaugural ceremony at Greece’s Presidential Palace, Athens, the capital of Greece. Accompanied by his wife, Mareva Grabowski, and 3 children, the 51-year-old politicians pledged a solemn vow to become the next Prime Minister of Greece.

After the inaugural ceremony and pledge were over, Mitsotakis went to assume his office and also to arrange names for his cabinet. Mitsotakis appointed Christos Staikouras to be Minister of Finance and Nikos Dendias as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the previous government, Staikouras was a former junior Minister of Finance and Dendias was the Minister of Defense and Justice.

For his victory speech, Mitsotakis stated that Greece’s “pain” had finally over. However, Mitsotakis had to admit that he is bearing a heavy weight on his shoulders to bail Greece out of the crisis. In his campaign, Mitsotakis promised to revive Greece by cutting taxes, attracting foreign investments, and improving the job market.

Greece has been suffering a decade-long financial crisis, and its people are getting out of Greece to seek a better life abroad. Last year, Greece’s debt was €335 billion, and it was 180% of Greece’s GDP! Surely, Mitsotakis needs to do more than promises to lead Greece back to its former glory.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/greek-conservative-mitsotakis-sworn-in-as-prime-minister/a-49511142