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live Who is who in the new interim government of Greece

17 May 2012 / 13:05:53  GRReporter
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There are sixteen ministers in the new interim government of Greece the composition of which was announced late last night. The government of the supreme judicial magistrate Panagiotis Pikramenos consists of lecturers, former ministers and diplomats. The small team was sworn in the presidency at exactly 10 am.

Pavlos Apostolidis was appointed as Minister of Administrative Reform and eGovernance. He has been a member of the diplomatic corps since 1965 and was an ambassador of Greece in Cyprus as well as Permanent Representative to the European Union. In 1998, he was appointed Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a year later - Director of the National Intelligence Service. He remained there until 2004 when he retired.

The new Minister of the Interior, who will hold the elections on 17 June, is Antonis Manitakis. He is an honorary professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The new Minister of Finance George Zanias is a lecturer of finance at the Economic University of Athens. Besides his successful academic career, he was an international expert for the European Commission, the International Bank and the United Nations. He was Secretary General of the Ministry of Finance in the period 2001 - 2004, during the government of Costas Simitis.

The new, and also former, Foreign Minister is the dean Petros Moliviatis. The diplomat, born in 1928, was a representative of Greece to the United Nations and NATO. He was also ambassador in the country's diplomatic missions in Moscow, Ankara and Pretoria. Petros Moliviatis was Foreign Minister from 2004 to 2006 in the first government of Costas Karamanlis. He was minister at the time of the meeting of the NATO summit in Bucharest, when Greece exercised its veto against the accession of Macedonia to NATO before resolving the dispute for its name. According to commentators, Petros Moliviatis was preferred for this position, because the same matter is expected to be discussed at the forthcoming 25th summit of the North Atlantic Alliance in Chicago on 20 - 21 May.

The new Minister of Defence Frangos Frangoulis is fluent in Turkish, English and Russian. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Athens and has a Masters Degree in European Law and International and European Affairs from the University of Pandeio. The general is the former commander of the general staff of the Greek army.

The current head of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, Yiannis Stournaras, was appointed as Minister of Development, Competitiveness and Shipping. He is a lecturer at the Economic University of Athens and has extensive experience in economics and politics.

The new Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Grigoris Tsaltas is a lecturer of international maritime law, international environmental law and international development law at the University of Athens.

The new Minister of Education is the lawyer Angeliki-Evfrosini Kiaou, despite the expectations that the former Minister George Babiniotis would remain in this post, because of the preparation of the examinations for the high schools.

The Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Simos Simopoulos is a mechanical and electrical engineer.

The Ministry of Labour was headed by Antonis Roupakiotis, former chairman of the Bar Association in Athens.

The new Minister of Health Christos Kittas is a lecturer at the Medical School of the University of Athens. In December 2008, he resigned from the post of rector of the university in protest against the inability of the authorities to protect university buildings and the centre of Athens from raids during the violent unrest that followed the murder of the student Alexandros Grigoropoulos, aged 15, by a police officer. A year later, at the insistence of President Carlos Papoulias he withdrew his resignation. A year later, anarchists, who had invaded the rector’s building, attacked him with wooden and iron bars. Then, he was hospitalized with cranial trauma. Several months later, Christos Kittas left the rector’s post for good.

The Minister of Rural Development and Food Napoleon Maravegias is a lecturer at the School of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Athens. He was preferred for the post, because he is an expert on the issues of agrarian policy and has published several books on that topic.

The new Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights Christos Yeraris is a judicial magistrate with a long career in both the Greek courtrooms and in the European Court of Human Rights.

 The former head of the Greek police Lefteris Economou was appointed as Minister of Citizen Protection.

Tatiana Karapanayioti - producer of films, television series and current affairs and the granddaughter of the famous Greek poet Aristotelis Valaoritis, headed the Ministry of Culture. She is the third member of her family on the maternal side, entering politics and the government.

The last team member is State Minister Antonis Argyros.
 
Some curious facts about the personality of the new prime minister with a family name Pikramenos (embittered) reflecting the feelings reigning in Greek citizens are that he likes fishing with a harpoon, motor sports and music. He knows each span of the seabed around the island of Mykonos, where his family villa is located.

 

Tags: PoliticsInterim governmentSwearPanagiotis Pikramenos
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