Greece has a new female prime minister and awaits early parliamentary elections

Alex Tsipras, who became the head of the Greek government seven months ago, tendered his resignation on 20 August. The head of the strongest opposition party, New Democracy, Evangelos Meimarakis, was charged by the Greek president on the same night with forming a new government. He was unable to fulfil his newly entrusted mandate, however, and so the Greek president, Prokopis Pavlopulos, commissioned the former chairperson of the Supreme Court, Vasiliki Thanou, with the formation of a technocratic government on 27 August. She thus became the very first woman to lead a Greek government. She will head a temporary government until a new cabinet is formed following elections which should take place on 20 September

On 20 August Greece also received the first EUR 13 billion of the new rescue programme approved by both Greek MPs and some Eurozone state parliaments, including Germany’s. The money was sent to the country via the European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM) which will provide the country with a total EUR 86 billion over the next three years.

This harbinger of spring in the form of EUR 13 billion helped the country repay EUR 3.4 billion to the European Central Bank (ECB) on the same day and a three-month bridging loan of EUR 7.16 billion to which EU states agreed in July. The threat of Greek financial collapse thus receded by a wide margin.

Thanks to the elections, Alexis Tsipras could strengthen his position and also expunge rebellious MPs from among electoral candidates.