Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday after the disappointing EU election results last Sunday.
The conservative New Democracy party, which has ruled the country since 2019, came first with 28.3 percent of the vote. But the result missed the target Mitsotakis had set during his pre-election campaign to match the outcome of the previous European election (33 percent). The result was also well below the 40.5 percent his party received in last June’s national election.
“The 41 percent does not exist today,” Mitsotakis said in an interview earlier this week, referring to the support the party received in the national vote. “If some people have seen the world from too high, it’s time to see it from a little lower.”
Development Minister Kostas Skrekas has been left out of the Cabinet in a change that underlines the government’s attempt to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Takis Theodorikakos, former citizen protection minister, replaces Skrekas in the development post.
Polls had shown for months that inflation was the top concern among voters.
The foreign and finance ministers were kept in place to show policy continuity.
More New Democracy MPs — rather than technocrats — joined the Cabinet, particularly from northern Greece, where far-right fringe parties performed particularly well in the election.
Interior Minister Niki Kerameus has been moved to the labor portfolio, in a move seen as a downgrade, following a data breach scandal before the European election and the steep fine imposed by the country’s Data Protection Authority.
Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis was replaced by Nikos Panagiotopoulos, an appointment seen as a move to the right.
Agriculture Minister Lefteris Avgenakis also was left out of the Cabinet, following the farmers’ protests particularly in the Thessaly plain, which was devastated by cataclysmic floods last September. The new minister and deputy minister both come from the Thessaly region.
The Cabinet still has 61 ministers and deputy ministers; women remain underrepresented.
After the election outcome, several government officials put the blame on the fact that the party moved to the center and neglected its right fraction. They blamed particularly same-sex marriage legislation, because they considered that this has disappointed the party’s traditional voters.
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