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A caretaker government of technocrats and retired politicians,headed by a senior judge, will have the sole task of organising afresh election on June 17, some six weeks after the last polls. , the head of Greece's top administrative court, was the compromisechoice after ten days of talks between political leaders failed toproduce a coalition government. Aside from being aptly named to head the fragmented country,Pikrammenos -- "embittered" in Greek -- takes over with Greece onceagain at the crossroads. A growing segment of the population has had enough of austerityafter two years of salary and pension sacrifices which have failedto bring the promised economic benefits within sight. But officials from the European Union and the InternationalMonetary Fund, which are all that stands between Greece and adisorderly debt default -- and a possible exit from the eurocurrency zone -- have warned daily that no new loans will bereleased if progress on pledged reforms falters. "It is clear to all that our homeland is going through difficulttimes. We must safeguard its prestige and assure a smoothtransition," said Pikrammenos, whose cabinet is to be sworn in at0700 GMT on Thursday, after accepting the mandate from PresidentCarolos Papoulias. The new parliament will convene an hour later, but given thebrevity of its mission, its 300 deputies will remain unpaid for theduration of their term. Greece and the world's financial markets had been anxiouslyawaiting the date for new polls amid growing fears thecash-strapped nation could be forced out of the 17-member eurozone. "The country is on a knife's edge," said the Hellenic Federation ofEnterprises, one of Greece's main business lobby groups. In a sign of the growing paralysis feared by creditors andinvestors alike, the agency overseeing state asset sales -- anothercondition for EU-IMF funds -- on Wednesday suspended its operationsuntil a fully fledged government is in place. "The board of directors decided that, in the course of the currentperiod, and until the formation of a government as a result of theforthcoming elections, it will not take any decisions which committhe fund," the Hellenic Republic asset development fund said. It added that observers from the EU and the eurozone had "expressedtheir concern" about this decision. Tough austerity measures included in a 240-billion euro ($300billion) EU-IMF deal for Greece saw voters on May 6 desert the mainPasok and New Democracy parties which had supported the bailout,and the strings attached to it. But there is no guarantee that the re-run vote will produce aviable government and left-wing Syriza, which has threatened totear up the EU-IMF deal, is tipped to win after surging into secondplace in the May election. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has insisted once againthat it is not possible to renegotiate the EU-IMF deal, the secondin two years aimed at averting bankruptcy. "Greece must be ready to accept the (EU-IMF) aid... Those who winthe elections will have to decide if they accept the conditions ornot," he said on Wednesday. European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso made the same point. "There is no way of changing the commitments taken by Greece andalso by the other 16 euro area member states," he said. "In these elections Greeks will vote on whether Greece should stayin the eurozone or not," outgoing finance minister PhilipposSachinidis said. British Prime Minister David Cameron will on Thursday renew hiscall for eurozone leaders to take decisive action or face the breakup of the single currency over the Greek debt crisis. The euro sank to a four-month low against the dollar Wednesday amidthe ongoing concerns that debt-wracked Greece will leave the euro,spreading financial contagion throughout the eurozone. In New York the euro was changing hands at $1.2715 around 2100 GMT,down from $1.2728 at the same time Tuesday, after plunging to$1.2681 during the day. A poll released on Wednesday, before the party talks collapsed,showed that 59 percent of those questioned would have preferred theformation of a coalition government, while 32 percent favoured newelections. The VPRC poll for online magazine epikaira.gr also found that 69percent of respondents were unhappy with the result of the lastelection, which put seven parties in parliament including aneo-Nazi group. The radical leftist Syriza party still tops the list with 20.3percent of the vote, building on the 16.78-percent result gainedtwo weeks ago. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Salon Trolley Cart Manufacturer , China Female Mannequin Head, and more. For more , please visit Salon Hair Brush today!
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