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The last round of talks between Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the leaders of political parties showed that it would be impossible to form a government with the current composition of parliament.

As a result, and following the procedures under the Greek constitution, the President appointed chairperson of the Greek Supreme Court Areopagus Vassiliki Thanou as caretaker Prime Minister. The first female Prime Minister in the history of Greece took an oath and received a mandate to form a cabinet. After the ceremony, she set off to the Prime Minister's residence Maximou to officially take up the post from outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Then the members of the caretaker government will be specified, who will take an oath on Friday but the time of the ceremony is not yet scheduled.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos issued the message having talked on the phone with each of the political leaders separately regarding whether to hold a meeting between them under his auspices or not. Former Prime Minister and leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras, leader of Independent Greeks Panos Kammenos, leader of Golden Dawn Nikos Michaloliakos and General Secretary of the Communist Party Dimitris Koutsoumbas responded negatively.

In turn, leaders of New Democracy Evangelos Meimarakis, the newly formed Popular Unity party Panagiotis Lafazanis, Potami Stavros Theodorakis and PASOK Fofi Genimata expressed their desire to hold the meeting.

Photo from a previous meeting of the political leaders, source: kathimerini.gr

As GRReporter reported earlier, New Democracy opposed the choice of Vassiliki Thanou for caretaker Prime Minister, stating that she would serve the interests of SYRIZA and Independent Greeks from this post. However, since the Areopagus was the only one of the three supreme courts where a chairperson was appointed after the mandates of their chairmen expired earlier this year, the President was required to appoint that person caretaker Prime Minister.

Although the announcement of the Presidency does not specify the exact date of the early elections, it is still considered that they will take place on 20 September.