ATHENS, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - New Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Wednesday he would make the fight against corruption a priority.
Papandreou, 57, was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister on Tuesday, after his Socialist opposition party PASOK won a majority of 160 seats in the 300-seat parliament in Sunday's elections, on the back of campaign pledge to fight corruption and tackle Greece's worst economic recession in years.
"We intend to seek changes," Papandreou said at the first meeting of the new Cabinet. "We will not allow privileges to be given to 'our people' to the detriment of the others."
Papandreou said he would prevent ministers from selecting personnel for their ministries. A "competition will be announced" for each of the main challenge posts, he said.
He also said "transparency should be everywhere, so that our citizens know what their money is being spent on."
Greece is currently burdened with an increasing unemployment rate and one of the biggest public debts in the euro zone, amounting to nearly 100% of its GDP. Its budget deficit is almost twice the euro zone maximum of 3% and continues to grow.
