The new government, led by Costas Karamanlis, was sworn in today. It includes 18 Ministers, one Alternate Minister and 27 Deputy Ministers. Only two officials from outside the Parliament are participating in the new government – Ambassador Petros Molyviatis as Foreign Minister and former rector of the National Metsovio Polytechnic School Themistocles Xanthopoulos as Deputy Minister of the Environment, Planning and Public Works, and two women, M. Giannakou in the Ministry of Education, and F.Palli –Petralia as Alternate Minister of Culture. The Ministry of Culture will be held by Costas Karamanlis himself, while only 11 members of the present government were members of the Mitsotakis government in 90-93. The Presidency of the Parliament was undertaken, for the first time in modern Greek history, by a woman, Anna Psaroudi – Benaki, and Stavros Dimas was appointed EU Commissioner.