A left-wing academic has been appointed as justice minister in the new Greek government as it heads on a collision course with the EU and International Monetary Fund over measures to bail out the country’s economy.

Nikos Paraskevopoulos, dean of the faculty of law, economics and political science at Athens University, is likely to play a leading role in efforts to revoke measures imposed by the so-called troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Paraskevopoulos spoke last year at the Left Strategy Project international workshop, Police democratisation in Europe.

He is a former professor of criminal law at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.