Greek President Appoints Caretaker Prime Minister Ahead of Early Elections

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, waits the arrival of former Energy Minister and head a party called Popular Unity , Panagiotis Lafazanis, before their meeting in Athens, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos appointed on Thursday the head of the country's Supreme Court, Vassiliki Thanou, as the caretaker prime minister ahead of the early general elections.

Thanou, who became the first female Greek prime minister, will swear her oath of office later on Thursday, while her cabinet will be inaugurated on Friday, daily Kathimerini informs.

The exact date of the early elections will be announced by Pavlopoulos by the end fo the week, the most likely date being September 20.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation last week after his government lost its parliamentary majority following a major rebellion within the SYRIZA party.

The dissent within the main ruling party was caused by the agreement of the third bailout programme between the government in Athens and its international creditors.

Earlier on Wednesday, Tsipras ruled out forming a national unity government with the conservative New Democracy, socialist PASOK or the centrist To Potami party in case his party fails to win an outright majority in the forthcoming elections.

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