Greek PM names New Finance and Transport Ministers in Reshuffle

The reshuffle, the second since the centre-right government won re-election in 2023, comes weeks after hundreds of thousands took to the streets demanding justice over Greece’s worst ever rail disaster, in which 57 people died, most of them students.

It was Greece’s biggest protest in years and has shaken Mitsotakis’ government, which has slipped in the opinion polls though it survived a parliamentary vote of no confidencelast week over the crash.

“It is uncertain whether such changes would alter people’s perception of the government or make it more effective,” political analyst Costas Panagopoulos said.

The new finance minister is Kyriakos Pierrakakis, a 42-year-old former computer scientist who has spearheaded the digitisation of many state services in his previous role as digital governance minister.

New Transport Minister Christos Dimas, 44, will supervise an overhaul of Greece’s railways. The government promised to modernize the railway network after the crash, but the safety gaps that caused the accident have not been tackled two years on, a state inquiry found last month.

Mitsotakis also picked Stavros Papastavrou and Nikos Tsafos, both close aides and experienced technocrats, for the environment and energy portfolios as Greece hopes to make its economy greener while also looking for gas reserves on its territory.

Source: Reuters