Antonis Samara sworn in as the Prime Minister of Greece

The New Democracy Party leader Antonis Samara sworn in as the Prime Minister of Greece on 20 June 2012. Samaras's centre-right New Democracy party bagged 129 seats of 300 in the parliamentary elections held on 17 June 2012.

The New Democracy Party formed the new government with the support of socialist party Pasok (with 33 seats) and the Democratic Left party (with 17 seats). The fresh elections were held in Greece following the political parties failure to reach an agreement on the results of the first election held on 6 May 2012.

Greece has been passing through the severe economic crisis which started in 2008. The country which makes nearly 2 per cent of the gross economic output of the Euro zone has seriously been contemplating the option of pulling out of the group. The exit of Greece from the eurozone raises a serious question over the future of European Union as many larger European economies such as Spain, Italy, Potugal are also likely to follow in the steps of Greece. To rescue Greece out of the economic crisis the European Union and International Monetary Fund had granted a 110 billion Euro package to the country in 2010, followed by a 130 billion Euro package in 2012.

What is Greece Crisis?

Greece over the past ten years took a massive amount of loan from different sources, to keep its numerous public expenditure and social security programs going. But hit hard by the 2008-09 economic recession the country failed to pay back its loan to lenders. Hence, it defaulted in its mandatory loan repayments. Since the country is the part of Eurozone, the economic catastrophe which hit the nation, directly affected the entire Eurozone economy. Though, Germany and France, the two largest economies of Eurozone, bailed Greece out in 2010 it again slipped in the same situation forcing other EU nations to plan another bailout for the nation.