Opposition parties slam reshuffle
Greece?s opposition parties have slammed the government reshuffle, claiming that it is a failed attempt to revive the fortunes of the ruling Socialists.
In a statement, New Democracy?s spokesman Yiannis Michelakis accused Prime Minister George Papandreou of ?recycling the same faces.?
?Instead of forming a government to save the country, he created a caretaker government to follow the same, failed policies.?
Michelakis said that the removal of Giorgos Papaconstantinou from the post of finance minister was an admission by the government that its economic policy had failed.
The Communist Party (KKE) responded to the reshuffle by labelling the new Cabinet ?dangerous.?
?This is just another dangerous government for the people, for the passing of new barbaric measures and to prepare the ground for closer cooperation with the parties of the plutocracy,? KKE said.
?The parties that are part of the system do not change, they just change faces and become worse for the people.?
The Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) said that Papandreou missed the opportunity to bring in non-political figures and accused him of only appointing ministers that have established positions within the ruling PASOK party.
?From an ecumenical government, we ended up with a ?deep PASOK? government,? said the right-wing party. ?Greece has missed a golden opportunity because some people did not deal with the situation properly, or did not want to deal with it.?
The Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) said that the reshuffle would not be enough to save the government.
?It looks like nothing can halt the government?s slide to complete collapse,? said the leftist party. ?It is an irrelevance who is putting into action the most unfair policies of the last decades, when the issue is how to overturn these policies.?
All the parties will have the chance to voice their opinions in Parliament from Sunday, when a debate will begin ahead of a vote of confidence late on Tuesday.
