Greece Names Lucas Papademos PM of Interim Government
![Incoming Prime Minister Lucas Papademos (C) walks through the gardens of the presidential palace after a meeting with Greek political leaders in Athens November 10, 2011.](https://d.medicaldaily.com/en/full/222014/incoming-prime-minister-lucas-papademos-c-walks-through-gardens-presidential-palace-after.jpg?w=600&f=c92b99ba56fd3f2241db6234952a240d)
Greece announced Thursday that it named Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Bank, as its new prime minister.
The announcement came after four days of tight negotiations between Greece's main two political parties about who would lead the new interim government.
"The course will not be easy,” Papademos said after the announcement, according to the New York Times. "But the problems, I’m convinced, will be solved. They will be solved faster, with a smaller cost and in an efficient way, if there is unity, agreement and prudence.”
Papademos' 15-week administration will have the task to pass a $179 billion package approved on Oct. 26 before elections on February 19th and avoid the country's bankruptcy.
If Greece fails to sign up the plan it could put in jeopardy its membership of the euro.
Papademos, who served as Vice President of the European Central Bank from 2002-2010, has a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His mentor Franco Modigliani was a Nobel Prize Economics winner in 1985.
He was professor at Columbia University from 1975 to 1984. He became chief economist at the Bank of Greece from 1985 to 1993.
He became governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002.