Appointed for a good reason
Recently appointed Education Minister Giorgos Babiniotis has threatened to resign after being pressured to implement the university reforms passed last year, which he appears reluctant to do.
Parliament backed the legislation — which decrees, among other things, that universities need to appoint administration boards to manage their finances before they can receive state funding — with a comfortable majority. The reason the renowned academic was handed the education portfolio before the general elections was not to protect vested interests and the agenda of fellow academics, but to make sure that the law was finally implemented.
To be sure, some changes may have to be made on the way. But any modifications to the law must be limited and not contradict what has been decided in Parliament.
We need to defend the involvement of technocrats in public affairs. For their part, people like Babiniotis must not give in to the colorful antics and the harmful politicking that is normally associated with Greek politicians.
