Greek PM Tsipras names anti-austerity cabinet

Updated: 2015-01-28 09:26

(Agencies)

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Greek PM Tsipras names anti-austerity cabinet

Newly appointed Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis smiles during a swearing in ceremony at the presidential palace in Athens January 27, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Europe has shown a willingness to give Athens more time to pay its debts, but has stressed it will not yield to the demands for debt forgiveness.

On Monday the head of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, warned Greeks against excessive expectations following their emphatic vote against austerity. "We all have to realise and the Greek people have to realise that the major problems in the Greek economy have not disappeared and haven't even changed overnight because of the simple fact that an election took place," he said.

The new cabinet includes a number of lawyers, professors and some former journalists. Former Communist politician Yannis Dragasakis - who in the run-up to the vote demanded an investigation into Greece's bailout - took the deputy prime minister's role that is expected to oversee economic issues.

The government, installed within 48 hours of Sunday's win, is expected to pursue social welfare policies such as handing out free electricity and food stamps to the poor and cutting heating oil prices, alongside a crackdown on tax evasion.

On the labour front, Tsipras is expected to reverse a cut to the minimum wage and restore collective bargaining agreements abolished under the bailout deal, as well as instituting a 5-billion-euro plan of incentives for firms to hire workers.

Syriza officials have also promised to take on business tycoons, though in the run-up to the vote they said little about whether they will implement earlier pledges to slap new taxes on big Greek shipowners.

Tsipras has also promised that he will scrap unpopular crisis-era taxes, prompting critics to question how he will be fund planned social spending.

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