New Greek parliament sworn in only to be dissolved by Tuesday

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – The new Greek parliament, which came into being after the May 21 general election, was sworn in on Sunday evening.

The oath-taking ceremony of the 300 lawmakers took place in the historical parliament building in the capital city of Athens in the presence of President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas.

Speaker, and deputy speakers of the parliament will be elected on Monday.

However, it is expected that the new parliament will be dissolved through a presidential decree on Monday or Tuesday after it has been established that it is impossible to form a coalition government.

The second election is expected to be held on June 25, or July 2 at the latest.

With all the votes counted on May 22, the New Democracy (ND) party won 40.79% – twice the main opposition SYRIZA’s 20.07%. Socialist PASOK came in third at 11.46%, followed by Greek Communist Party with 7.23%. The far-right populist Greek Solution party came in fifth with 4.45%.

On May 22, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also the leader of the ND party, returned the mandate, saying he wanted fresh polls for his New Democracy to form a single-party government.

On May 23, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition SYRIZA party, and Nikos Androulakis, leader of the social-democratic PASOK leader turned down the mandates pointing out the impossibility of forming a coalition government.

On May 24, Ioannis Sarmas, former president of the Court of Audit, was sworn in as the caretaker prime minister.