Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday axed his finance minister, naming a former foe to implement deeply unpopular austerity measures and ward off economic meltdown.
Outgoing Greek Minister of National Defence Evangelos Venizelos, a tough-talking party veteran who had challenged Papandreou for the party leadership in 2007, was promoted to the critical post and also named deputy prime minister.
Venizelos, 54, is a French-educated constitutional expert who previously headed Greece’s frenetic preparations to host the Athens 2004 Olympics.
Papandreou initially sought to enlist former European Central Bank vice president Loucas Papademos to take over the finance ministry, reports said.
Under fire from party backbenchers on Thursday for leading a failed effort to revive the Greek economy, the prime minister also slimmed down the government, axed a few unpopular allies and gave posts to dissenters.
Outgoing Greek Minister of Finance George Papaconstantinou, who was blasted by fellow party cadres for failing to jumpstart the economy after an 18-month effort, was given the environment ministry, a move analysts see as a demotion.
Papandreou yesterday also named a new foreign minister, 49-year-old Stavros Lambrinidis, formerly head of the ruling party’s group of deputies at the European Parliament and a long-term confidant of the prime minister when the latter held the post a decade ago.
Two other key officials who had handled tough reforms, Greek Minister of Health and Social Solidarity Andreas Loverdos and Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security George Koutroumanis, were given additional responsibilities, with the latter bumped up to full minister.
However, Papandreou also axed two of his close associates, former foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas and former environment minister Tina Birbili, who had both drawn fire within the party.
A vote of confidence on the new government was expected as early as tomorrow when eurozone ministers are scheduled to meet in an effort to find common ground on saving Greece from a looming debt default.
A budding revolt on Thursday by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which holds a slim five-seat majority in parliament, delayed Papandreou’s reshuffle by a day with the clock ticking on critical talks with Greece’s creditors over a new bailout.
Papandreou’s government is locked in tough negotiations with its European peers for a new bailout after a previous EU-IMF rescue was deemed insufficient to get the recession-plagued Greek economy back on its feet.
Greece has warned it will be unable to pay next month’s bills without a 12 billion euro (US$17.1 billion) loan installment from the EU and the IMF, part of a broader 110 billion euro bailout package agreed last year.
A critical vote in parliament on a controversial new austerity package worth over 28 billion euros, demanded by Greece’s creditors in return for the latest aid infusion, must be held by the end of the month.
Two PASOK lawmakers, former deputy ministers George Floridis and Hector Nassiokas, on Thursday quit their seats in protest at the government’s economic policies and the failure of talks with the conservative opposition to form a national unity administration.
Greek lawmakers have been subjected to scathing verbal attacks for weeks by thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament to reject new planned cuts.
The Kathimerini daily yesterday spoke of a “fragile truce” in the PASOK and the leftist Eleftherotypia said that the new Cabinet was “wounded” before it even assumed its duties.
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