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Deputy Minister of Labour Nikos Nikolopoulos resigned from Antonis Samaras’ cabinet. The main reason for his inglorious leaving according to Nikolopoulos was his disagreement with the government programme, which relies more on privatization and structural reforms, than on renegotiating the measures related to labour relations in the country – the level of wages, coming cuts and other reductions - with the creditors.

In an open letter to the media, Nikos Nikolopoulos states, "I would like to clarify that the sole reason for my resignation is my personal conviction that the issues of renegotiating (the bailout agreement) with the supervisory Troika and the correction of obvious distortions in labour relations, pension and social security should have been openly put on the table from the start." The already former Deputy Minister of Employment said that the measures he was required to implement conflicted with his personal beliefs and therefore, he could not carry out his duties.

Under the bailout agreement, this year, the government must additionally cut the salaries of specific civil servants such as police, medical personnel, military and fire-fighters in order to save around 200 million euro by the end of 2012 and another 400 million euro in 2013. Reductions should take effect retroactively on 1 July 2012 and will amount to approximately 12% of gross salary.

Nikos Nikolopoulos’ resignation a day after the vote of confidence to the new government sent a bad signal abroad. Things are becoming even more difficult for Greece, taking into account that the new Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras is on his first meeting with Eurogroup. He has undertaken the difficult task of persuading the European finance ministers that Greece is determined to implement the agreed reforms despite all the delays and omissions.

According to the information in the Greek media, Nikolopoulos had submitted his resignation at the end of last week. This did not appeal to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who had to persuade the deputies and the public over the weekend that the government programme was effective and would give results. "Imagine what it would be like if the Deputy Minister of Labour had resigned before the cabinet received a vote of confidence?" politicians commented.

Antonis Samaras invited the resigning Minister to a meeting to discuss the issues bothering him, but Nikolopoulos was obviously determined that it would be a mistake to remain in the government post. His refusal made the Prime Minister angry and he replaced Nikos Nikolopoulos imediately. The new Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare is Nikos Panagiotopoulos, who is a lawyer by profession and tries cases in the Supreme Court. In the late 1990s, he was the chief secretary and later, an adviser to the Union of Industrialists of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. In 2007 and 2009, he was elected as a member of New Democracy.