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Today at 11:00, 300 members of the new Greek parliament were sworn in. The presidency provisionally went to Nikitas Kaklamanis from New Democracy, as the chairwoman of the last Parliament Zoe Konstantopoulou, as well as three of her deputies were either not elected or got government posts.

The new parliament speaker as well as his/her deputies will be voted tomorrow, while the government's programme declaration will be presented on Monday. According to the parliamentary rules, there will be seven deputy-speakers. Three of them will hail from the strongest parliamentary force (SYRIZA), the fourth one from the runner-up (New Democracy) and the remaining three will come from the next three opposition parties (respectively, Golden Dawn, the Democratic Coalition and the Communist Party).

SYRIZA has nominated Nikos Voutsis as house speaker. Apart from SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks, the Democratic Coalition also pledged support for Voutsis.

The eight-party parliament, with the Union of Centrists represented for the first time, will have 59 women, 10 less than the last Parliament. Of these, 32 are in SYRIZA's parliamentary group, and 11 in New Democracy's one.

Syriza, as the election winner, will have 145 MPs. Second comes New Democracy with 75, Golden Dawn is third with 18, the Democratic Coalition (PASOK-Democratic Left) will have 17, the Communist Party – 15, Potami – 11, the Independent Greeks 10 and the Union of Centrists 9.

Quite a few in each party will be MPs for the first time. 42 of the novices are from SYRIZA, 3 from New Democracy, 5 from the Democratic Coalition, 2 from the Communist Party, one from Potami, 2 from the Independent Greeks, 6 from Golden Dawn and 9 from the Union of Centrists.

Less enthusiasm and more concern for the future haunted the atmosphere. Interest was focused on Alexis Tsipras's visit to the US, New Democracy's in-house tumult, as well as the emergence of the Centrists Union in parliament. Many politicians congratulated the party president, Vassilis Levendis; among them were Nikos Voutsis (he also hailed the PASOK and Potami MPs), Adonis Georgiadis, Olga Kefaloyani, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, defence minister Panos Kamenos, and Dora Bakoyannis.

Parliament was also attended by the cabinet ministers, some of whom are MPs as well. Prime Minister Tsipras came down shortly after 11:00. He greeted warmly Dora Bakoyannis and Evangelos Meimarakis, who entered the hall at the same time. Tsipras and Meimarakis had a brief chat in an apparently good mood. Then Tsipras hailed the Syriza MPs, as well as the MPs from the other parties; Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoubas did the same.

Archbishop Yeronimos blessed the hall, but unlike other times did not go to the parliamentary group presidents for the kiss of the cross. The MPs took religious oath on the Bible. Thereafter, the two Muslim MPs swore on the Koran. Finally, the remaining MPs took a civil oath.

The ceremony was attended by caretaker prime minister Vassiliki Thanou, former parliamentary speaker Dimitris Sioufas, SYRIZA MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis, as well as by representatives of religious denominations and the armed forces.