Greece Names Interim Prime Minister to Lead the Country to Snap Election

Announcement likely to be posted Friday outside Greek parliament calling for Sep 20 election

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI

Updated Aug. 27, 2015 11:21 a.m. ET

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ATHENS—Greece Thursday officially entered the pre-election period for the second time this year, as the head of the country’s Supreme Court Vassiliki Thanou Christopoulou has been named caretaker Prime Minister, with the task to lead the country to elections.

Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos “is obliged to give the mandate for the formation of the government with the widest possible acceptance in order to hold elections to the President of the Supreme Court Mrs. Vassiliki Thanou,” the presidency said in a statement.

Elections are expected to take place on Sep. 20, though the date will be officially announced Friday, after the swearing in of the interim government.

A presidential decree for the dissolution of parliament and the announcement of the election is expected to be posted on Friday outside the Greek parliament.

Mrs. Thanou, 65, is the first woman to serve as Greece’s Prime Minister.

She has been named Supreme Court president on July 1 and serves as president of the country’s electoral court.

She graduated from the Athens School of Law, before completing postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne University on European Law.

Earlier Thursday, the leader of newly formed Popular Unity party Panagiotis Lafazanis returned his mandate to form a government to Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

After Greece’s outgoing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last week in a bid to trigger a snap election in late September, Mr. Pavlopoulos mandated opposition New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis and then Mr. Lafazanis with the task to muster a coalition.

No alternative majority excluding Syriza would be plausible, but both parties decided to make use of all the time the constitutionally required procedure offers in an effort to delay the election date.

In his last interview before handing over PM’s office Wednesday, Mr. Tsipras said he hopes to return to power with an absolute majority.

Mr. Tsipras said even if he achieves a slim majority of 151 MPs in the country’s 300-seat parliament, he will still look for coalition with other parties, but he won’t remain Prime Minister if he has to cooperate with Greece’s old, systemic political parties.

The Greek premier faces the growing challenge of warding off a disintegration of his Syriza party, as many lawmakers and party members haven’t decided whether they will run in the forthcoming elections.

Last week, 25 of Syriza’s 149 members of parliament formed Popular Unity party, completing a divorce that has been looming since July, when Mr. Tsipras agreed to the austerity-heavy terms of Greece’s European creditors, despite his party’s long-standing campaign to put an end to the harsh measures.

“It is a sad outcome, but not an unexpected one,” Mr. Tsipras told local Alpha TV Wednesday.

“What makes me sad is the attempt by the inner enemy to become the main enemy,” he said, adding that he was hurt that many of his ex-Syriza colleagues, who a few weeks ago feared a banking collapse, are now criticizing him.

Apart from Syriza’s hard-liners, members of another fraction within Syriza, the Group of 53, were this week considering whether to stand aside in the electoral battle.

The Group of 53, formed in mid-2014, stands ideologically between the hard-line Left Platform and Mr. Tsipras’s relatively pragmatic group of core backers. Many of its members have been close aides to the party leader, but some abstained during the mid-August vote on Greece’s third bailout deal with the country’s creditors. Even if the group decides to stick with Syriza, it is expected to act as an opposition faction within the party.

Write to Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com