Cabinet of Antonis Samaras

The Cabinet of Antonis Samaras succeeded the Caretaker Cabinet of Panagiotis Pikrammenos after the repeated legislative elections in May and June 2012. It was sworn in on Thursday, 21 June 2012.^[1] The former ministries of Shipping, Tourism and Macedonia and Thrace were re-established.^[2] The junior coalition partners, PASOK and DIMAR, chose to take a limited role in the cabinet, preferring to be represented by party officials and independent technocrats instead of MPs.^[3] Vassilis Rapanos, the prime minister's first choice for finance minister, fell ill before being sworn in, and tendered his resignation on 25 June. Yannis Stournaras was then chosen as the new finance minister on 26 June, and sworn in on 5 July.^[4][5]

Cabinet of Antonis Samaras
Cabinet of Greece
Prime minister Samaras (r.) and his deputy Venizelos (l.)
Date formed	21 June 2012 (2012-06-21)
Date dissolved	26 January 2015 (2015-01-26)
People and organisations
Head of state	Karolos Papoulias
Head of government	Antonis Samaras
Member parties	New Democracy, PASOK, Democratic Left (DIMAR, until 21 June 2013
Status in legislature	New Democracy led coalition government 179 / 300 (60%) (until 21/06/13) 163 / 300 (54%) (from 21/06/13)
Opposition parties	Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Independent Greeks (ANEL) Golden Dawn Democratic Left (DIMAR) (from 21 June 2013) Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
Opposition leader	Alexis Tsipras
History
Election	June 2012 Greek legislative election
Legislature term	15th (2012–2015)
Predecessor	Pikrammenos Caretaker Cabinet
Successor	Tsipras Cabinet

DIMAR left the coalition on 21 June 2013 in protest at the closure of the nation's public broadcaster ERT, leaving Samaras with a slim majority of 153 ND and PASOK MPs combined.^[6] The two remaining parties proceeded to negotiate a cabinet reshuffle that resulted in a significantly expanded role for PASOK in the new coalition government.^[7][8] A further reshuffle followed the 2014 European Parliament election.^[9]