Reaction: Lucas Papademos named new Greek PM

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit 1:40PM GMT 10 Nov 2011

Former ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos will head Greece's new crisis coalition, and will have to scramble to save the country from default and an exit from the eurozone. Here are analysts' comments on his appointment.

Lucas Papademos, former ECB vice-president, will head Greece's new crisis coalition.

I can't see the unions and the population willing to support an unelected technical government that is demanded by the European Union and even more so Germany.

There's the danger that an interim technical government will not be able to implement policy purely because, down the road, there will be general elections and things will be reversed, so there is a great risk of a state of limbo.

The markets prefer a technical government but if that technical government doesn't have the population behind it, it's difficult to see how this will be resolved.

 

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Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist, Capital Economics

It suggests that some of these measures will be pushed through but in the long run the situation will not improve until Greece leaves the euro zone and devalues its currency.

It's going to be extremely difficult for them to implement these measures because there will be very strong public opposition to them.

Platon Monokroussos, EFG Eurobank economist

This is clearly a positive market development coming at a difficult time for Greece and the euro area. The new government, which will enjoy very strong support in parliament, is expected to rigorously implement the Oct. 26-27 bailout agreement and the economic policies supporting it.

The new Prime Minister is a broadly and internationally recognised and appreciated policymaker and this is likely to help restore Greece's credibility with its euro area partners and with financial markets.

Costas Panagopoulos, Alco Pollsters

After three days of comedy, Greece has today a prime minister who is fully qualified to succeed in the task he has been assigned to.

The fact that the parties finally managed to cooperate is also very positive. I hope that the big gap between political parties and Greek citizens will now start narrowing.

Dimitris Mardas, economics professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

It was the best solution out of the dozens that were proposed. From now on it is up to him whether he will do what he wants or succumb to pressure from the two parties to follow a different policy. But his personality tends to rule out the latter.

Reaction: Lucas Papademos named new Greek PM - Telegraph