New cabinet members to be sworn in on Monday afternoon
The new members of the cabinet, announced last Friday, are to be sworn in during a ceremony at 6.30 p.m. on Monday during a ceremony at the presidential mansion to be attended by President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The key changes made by Tsipras to his cabinet are the promotion of Alternate Foreign Minister Giorgos Katrougalos to the helm of the ministry, which Tsipras himself undertook last October following the departure of Nikos Kotzias.
Sia Anagnostopoulou is to assume Katrougalos's previous role, as alternate minister responsible for European affairs.
Tsipras appointed two former socialist ministers, Thanos Moraitis and Angelos Tolkas, as deputy ministers – the first at the Infrastructure and Transport Ministry and the second at the Migration Ministry.
The premier also replaced two deputy ministers who are SYRIZA candidates for mayoral posts in the country’s two largest cities ahead of local authority elections scheduled for May.
Eleftheria Hatzigeorgiou, who previously headed the office of government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, was appointed deputy minister for Macedonia-Thrace, replacing Katerina Notopoulou, who is to run for Thessaloniki mayor on the leftists’ ticket.
Constantinos Barkas, a SYRIZA MP for Preveza, was appointed deputy minister for social security, taking over from Thanasis Iliopoulos, who is SYRIZA’s choice for Athens mayor.
