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With its new ministers Greece returns to clientelism

10 June 2014 / 15:06:55  GRReporter
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New Democracy has openly turned to the so-called ‘people's’ right wing, giving in to the pressure exerted by Golden Dawn and other far-right formations. The composition of the cabinet now involves functionaries such as Argiris Dinopoulos, Sofia Voultepsi, Gerasimos Yakoumatos whose only quality is their dynamics in television broadcasts. This further reduces the quality of political staff which is low anyway. The appointment of Vassilis Kikilias in the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection was really surprising and it probably indicates Antonis Samaras’ desire to have a trusted man in such a critical sector.

PASOK has increased its presence in the cabinet due to the "great" election result of 8% it won in the European elections. Also impressive is the appointment of Andreas Loverdos (the new Minister of Education – author’s note) who has already taken his place in the modern political history of the country as the most representative figure of intriguer’s mentality and pursuit of office.

In general, the composition of the cabinet smells of mould and defeatism. It seems that the two ruling parties have decided to play in the Catenaccio style, allowing their opponent to play in the centre of the stadium and abandoning every defensive (reformist) tactics. Let's hope that the national football team will perform better at the stadiums in Brazil," he writes in his commentary for GRReporter.

The reshuffling of the Greek cabinet inspired the administrators of the "observatory" on the social network Facebook. They "predicted" that the representative of the International Monetary Fund in the supervisory Troika Poul Thomsen would be so desperate after his first meeting with the new Deputy Minister of Development and person in charge of market liberalization Gerasimos Yakoumatos that the only possible solution for him would be to perform hara-kiri.


Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has released its report, recommending that Athens should continue to apply the programme to stabilize the Greek economy. After the encouraging words related to the progress achieved, the report authors emphasize the need for taking all necessary measures in order to cover the budget gap for 2015 and 2016. In fact, this means new austerity measures as commented by the Greek media. They also define the huge national debt as a main obstacle.

The International Monetary Fund informs about the main problem of Greek banks, namely the huge number of loans "in the red." Furthermore, according to the report, the real value of loans in the country remains high.

At the same time, the experts report a delay in the implementation of the reforms, especially in the liberalization of the labour market and of commodity markets. They express concern about the fact that the pressure to delay the reforms in the country is very strong whereas the political support for the programme for economic recovery is too weak and rests on a fragile parliamentary majority of just two seats.

Tags: PoliticsCabinet reshufflingNew ministersGikas HardouvelisReformsClientelism
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