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Communists and anti-Semites occupy key posts in Tsipras’ cabinet

The composition of the new Greek cabinet that involves the winner of Sunday's elections, the radical left SYRIZA, and the Independent Greeks party that has extreme right leanings has been announced less than 48 hours after the vote.

Reality refutes the initial information that the team will be small and will only consist of 10 ministers. The coalition SYRIZA - ANEL, which is the Greek abbreviation of the Independent Greeks party, has created four super-ministries that unite several separate departments. Each is headed by a Deputy Minister and the total number of the members of the council of ministers is 40. They are as follows:

Prime Minister: Alexis Tsipras,

Deputy Prime Minister: Yiannis Dragasakis,

Minister of Interior and Administrative Reorganisation: Nikos Voutsis,

Minister of Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism: George Stathakis,

Minister of Finance: Yanis Varoufakis,

Minister of Production Reconstruction, Environment and Energy: Panagiotis Lafazanis,

Minister of Culture, Education and Religion: Aristidis Baltas,

Minister of Defence: Panos Kammenos,

Minister of Health and Social Security: Panagiotis Kouroublis,

Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity and Head of the Chief Secretary for Social Security: Panos Skourletis,

Minister of Justice: Nikos Paraskevopoulos,

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Nikos Kotzias,

State Minister: Nikos Pappas,

Government spokesman: Gabriel Sakellaridis.

SYRIZA has provided four seats in the new cabinet for the coalition partners of Independent Greeks, appointing party leader Panos Kammenos Minister of Defence. It is worth noting that he had posed the condition for taking this post in exchange for his support to the government of Lucas Papademos. According to reports from that time, Kammenos had sent his request by fax to the office of President Karolos Papoulias, as the negotiations were conducted under his auspices. Later, however, Kammenos had firmly denied sending anything, as well as the probability of his party supporting Papademos’ cabinet. Former spokesman of Independent Greeks Terens Kouik is appointed Deputy State Minister and Elena Koundoura Deputy Minister of Tourism. The fourth party representative in the government is Maria Kollia-Tsaroucha, who is Deputy Minister of Macedonia and Thrace, although it was expected that the specific department would be closed.

According to State Minister Nikos Pappas, the cabinet of Alexis Tsipras will propose Zoe Konstandopoulou as President of the Greek Parliament.

The members of the new Greek government will take an oath later today, and the first meeting of the council of Ministers will take place on Wednesday.