End of an era, start of renewal for government and opposition
hat with the fires and the elections, the Greek summer ended early this year. The political horizon may have cleared for New Democracy, but dense clouds loom over PASOK headquarters at 50 Harilaou Trikoupi Street, following their defeat. The next step is the election of a leader. The main challenger to current leader George Papandreou is the extremely vocal university professor Evangelos Venizelos, who had a cup of coffee thrown at him by a well-known agitator on Thursday for indicating he would be a candidate immediately after the election result was announced. If the protester had thrown the cup too, at least someone who knows how to read coffee grounds could have told him what his chances are of becoming party leader. To return to the winner, ND, and its undisputed leader Karamanlis – he presented a government with 17 ministries and sent 40 ministers and deputies to be sworn in before the president. With Sotiris Hatzigakis (Justice) at 61, and Christos Zois (deputy interior minister) at 38, the average age of the new Cabinet is 51, the same age as the premier. The only woman in the Cabinet after Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis is Sophia Kalantzakou (deputy minister of employment and social security), from Messinia, a Pierce College and Yale graduate who speaks five languages.
