Veteran Lawyer Appointed Greece's Interim Interior Minister

Antonis Roupakiotis, a veteran lawyer and an ex-cabinet member, was sworn in on Thursday as the caretaker interior minister of Greece

ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th June, 2019) Antonis Roupakiotis, a veteran lawyer and an ex-cabinet member, was sworn in on Thursday as the caretaker interior minister of Greece.

The ceremony was held at the Presidential Mansion in Athens in the presence of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The event was broadcast live on Greek public television ERT.

The only task of Roupakiotis in office will be organizing early parliamentary elections on July 7.

Roupakiotis served as the minister of justice, transparency and human rights in 2012-2013.

Before the appointment, Roupakiotis was the chairman of the Athens Bar Association.

On Tuesday, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos dissolved the country's parliament and announced the snap vote at the request of Tsipras. The latter justified his request by the fact that the ruling party SYRIZA suffered a resounding 9.3 percentage point defeat to opposition center-right New Democracy party in last month's European Parliament elections. The prime minister also said he wanted to receive "the people's mandate."