New ministers to be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon
Greek President Karolos Papoulias is due to swear in three members of Cabinet in Greece’s interim government on Wednesday afternoon, following the announcement of a mini-reshuffle by technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos shortly after midnight.
The reshuffle was prompted by the resignation 10 days ago of Citizens’ Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis, who said that he will be focusing his attentions on the leadership race of the PASOK socialist party. He will be replaced by PASOK’s Michalis Chrysochoidis, who has held the portfolio before, in the 2009-2010 period.
Chrysochoidis, who currently serves as minister for development, competitiveness and shipping, will be replaced in that post by Anna Diamantopoulou, another Socialist politician who currently serves as education minister.
Diamantopoulou’s ministry, meanwhile, will be assigned to the respected academic Georgios Babiniotis, a former rector of the University of Athens and one of the architects of the reform of Greece’s education sector.
Former Greek Police chief Lefteris Economou has also been named a deputy minister of citizens protection and will serve alongside the other acting deputy minister, Manolis Othonas.
