“Minister Michelakis is exiting the Maximos mansion?” the breaking new presenter on Skai TV asked the reporter covering the government reshuffle news. “No, Minister Michelakis is exiting the government!” the reporter corrected the presenter. With breaking news Greek television channels started to report about the much expected cabinet reshuffle short after 4 o’ clock Monday afternoon. As the reshuffle is not official yet, Greek media started to report about ministers leaving the cabinet.
The A-class ministers who go first of all are
- Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras
- Development Minister Costis Chatzidakis
- Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis
- Agriculture Development Minister Athanasios Tsaftaris
- Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis
- Culture Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos
- Education Minister Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos
- Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou
Andreas Loverdos, who abandoned PASOK last year and is going back to strengthen the coalition government is reportedly to be assigned to the position of Education Minister.
Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos is to remain in position. Venizelos is also deputy prime minister and leader of junior coalition government partner PASOK.
Olga Kefalogianni is expected to remain Tourism minister and Yiannis Maniatis Environment Minister Yiannis Maniatis.
Minister for Public Order Nikos Dendias is allegedly to become Development Minister.
Media have been reporting on recent days that the cabinet reshuffle was to be as thorough as possible in order to create a social profile for Samaras’ coalition government.
Two main things are important in this reshuffle:
a) the name of the new Finance Minister
b) whether PASOK will increase its participation in the ministries.
sources: several Greek TV channels and websites.
o6:07 pm
government reshuffle official announcement
new Finance Minister is Gikas Hardouvelis ( WHO?)
state TV NERIT: “Hardouvelis knows the Troika, he was director of economics in the office of PM Lucas Papadimos”
He was also director of economics in the office of PM Kostas Simitis from 2000-2004
Who is Gikas Hardouvelis?
Gikas A. Hardouvelis is a professor in the Department of Banking and Financial Management at the University of Piraeus, and Financial Advisor of EUROBANK.
Who is Gikas Hardouvelis? More information in Greek
Who is Gikas Hardouvelis – I posted in English here
o6:20 pm
New Greek cabinet – the new names:
Finance Minister: Gikas Hardouvelis Deputy ministers: Staikouras, Mavragannis
Interior Minister: Argyris Dinopoulos
Development and Competitiveness:
Minister Nikos Dendias – Deputy Ministers: Konstantinopoulos, Giakoumatos, Mitarakis
Education: Andreas Loverdos
Health: Makis Voridis, deputy ministers: Grigorakos, Papakosta
Culture: Konstrantinos Tasoulas, Deputy ministers: Gerekou, Andrianos
Agricultural development: Yiannis Karasmanis
Minister for Public Order & Citizen Protection: Vasilis Kikkilias
Makedonias-Thrakis: Giorgos Orfanbos
Government Spokesman: Sofia Voultepsi
The rest (Labour, Defence etc) remain the same.
07:03 pm
Some notes to some new cabinet members:
Health Ministry: Makis Voridis vs Adonis Georgiadis: both abandoned nationalist LAOS in 2012 and entered Nea Dimokratia. It is clear to everyone here in Greece that only one of them can be in the cabinet.
Furthermore, Georgiadis managed to break the government ties with all professional groups in the health sector. He had to pay for this.
Ministry for Public Order: Vasilis Kikilias is a former professional basketball player.
Culture Ministry: deputy Min Angela Gerekou: She was appointed Culture and Tourism Minister in the Papandreou government after the elections in September 2009 but she was obliged to resign 8 months later due to a tax evasion issue of her husband, singer Tolis Voskopoulos.
Government Spokesman is a woman. Sofia Voultepsi. A veteran journalist. The first woman appointed to this position.
Fact is that the new ministers are being called in to further proceed with Greece’s commitments to the Troika only in what the media describe as “a citizen-friendly way.”
How did Greeks react to the new cabinet? See here in “Greek reshuffle tragicomedy: “recycling banksters, fascists, and fools” – many comments in English
PS a big question now is how will former Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis deal psychologically with his “media-cameras-microphones addiction” :p
While it remains to be seen if the new government is any better than the old one (now that would be a surprise), it’s probably good that Chatzidakis is out, a loudmouth who didn’t get anything done. And that Loverdos comes back may be good news, too. If my bad memory doesn’t fail me he is one of the few more brave politicians who dare to tell people the truth instead of opting for cheap populism. Also, nice to see Olga Kefalogianni stays in office, she did a laudable job for promoting tourism, under the difficult circumstances. Are there any real surprises, promising talents among the rest of the new team?
Hmm, that last link doesn’t work, kt!
now it works