Greek minister quits days after getting job

The banker who was chosen to be Greece’s next finance minister resigned for health reasons three days after he was rushed to hospital, while the country’s prime minister was confined to his home, recovering from serious eye surgery.

Greece’s debt woes took a back seat to the health problems of the country’s five-day-old government, forcing debt inspectors to postpone a visit to Athens and prompting Germany to warn yesterday a EU summit later this week would be unlikely to produce any major decisions on Greece.

Prime minister Antonis Samaras accepted the resignation of Vassilis Rapanos hours after being discharged from another hospital himself following an operation to repair a detached retina over the weekend. 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 on Friday before he could be sworn in. The Hygeia Hospital said his condition was improving and he was expected to be discharged.

It was unclear when a replacement would be named. As he had not been sworn in, outgoing finance minister Giorgos Zanias, a key negotiator for Greece’s international bailout before assuming the post in a one-month caretaker government, still holds the title.

After years of profligate government spending and false accounting, Greece has been dependent on two rescue loan deals worth a total of €240bn since May 2010.