ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A leadership vacuum loomed for Greece as the designated finance minister resigned for health reasons Monday just three days after he was rushed to the hospital and before he even had time to be sworn in.
The health problems of Greece's five-day-old government had already forced the country's international debt inspectors to postpone their Monday visit to Athens and prompted Germany to warn that a European Union summit later this week would be unlikely to produce any major decisions on Greece.
Rapanos, chairman of the National Bank of Greece, had been named finance minister last week in the country's new three-party coalition government but became ill before he could be sworn in Friday.
"The recent incident that led to my admission to a hospital shows that my health problem has not been fully overcome," Rapanos said in his letter of resignation, released by Samaras' office.
[...] before the summit, Greece's debt inspectors, known as the troika — representatives from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF — were to visit Athens and give their professional assessment of Greece's financial situation.
Samaras' government, comprised of his New Democracy conservatives, their long-time socialist rivals PASOK and the small Democratic Left party, has said it wants to revise its bailout conditions with creditors.
The latest figures released by the finance ministry Monday showed Greece's budget deficit for the first five months of 2012 was better than expected, coming in at €10.87 billion ($13.63 billion) instead of the target of €12.89 billion ($16.17 billion) on a modified cash basis.
The health problems of Greece's five-day-old government had already forced the country's international debt inspectors to postpone their Monday visit to Athens and prompted Germany to warn that a European Union summit later this week would be unlikely to produce any major decisions on Greece.
Rapanos, chairman of the National Bank of Greece, had been named finance minister last week in the country's new three-party coalition government but became ill before he could be sworn in Friday.
"The recent incident that led to my admission to a hospital shows that my health problem has not been fully overcome," Rapanos said in his letter of resignation, released by Samaras' office.
[...] before the summit, Greece's debt inspectors, known as the troika — representatives from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF — were to visit Athens and give their professional assessment of Greece's financial situation.
Samaras' government, comprised of his New Democracy conservatives, their long-time socialist rivals PASOK and the small Democratic Left party, has said it wants to revise its bailout conditions with creditors.
The latest figures released by the finance ministry Monday showed Greece's budget deficit for the first five months of 2012 was better than expected, coming in at €10.87 billion ($13.63 billion) instead of the target of €12.89 billion ($16.17 billion) on a modified cash basis.
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