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Viewing cable 09ATHENS1535, WHO'S WHO IN THE NEW GREEK GOVERNMENT
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| Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09ATHENS1535 | 2009-10-07 15:16 | 2011-08-30 01:44 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Athens |
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 ATHENS 001535
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TAGS: PREL MARR ECON GR PGOV
SUBJECT: WHO'S WHO IN THE NEW GREEK GOVERNMENT
¶1. (SBU) Summary: As expected after his comfortable win in the
October 4 Greek parliamentary election, PM George Papandreou has
named a government consisting of some PASOK old guard, with a
liberal helping of fresh new faces, many of whom have substantial
international experience, if not government or management
experience. At the same time, Papandreou will reorganize the
ministries themselves, most notably creating a new Ministry for
Citizens' Protection - something like a Department for Homeland
Security -- led by a proven performer Michalis Chrysochoides,
former Minister of Public Order. He will also devote focus greater
bureaucratic attention on developing a green economy, as evidenced
from his appointment of a Deputy Foreign Minister charged with
promoting a "green" international agenda and the creation of a
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change. Initial public
reactions from a broad spectrum of Greek press and public reflect
satisfaction with the modern, technocratic and effective "look" of
this new government. End Summary
Foreign Ministry
---------------------
¶2. (SBU) George Papandreou, elected Prime Minister in the October
4, 2009 general elections, was born on June 16, 1952 in St. Paul,
Minnesota and was educated in Canada, Massachusetts, Stockholm and
London. George Papandreou is the third-generation of his family to
become Prime Minister, with grandfather Yeoryios Papandreou and
father Andreas Papandreou both having previously held the position.
Prior to becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs in February 1999,
he served as Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs (from 1996 to
1999); Minister of Education and Religious Affairs (from 1994 to
1996 and from 1988 to 1989); Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,
responsible for overseeing US-Greek relations (from 1993 to 1994);
and Under Secretary for Cultural Affairs (from 1985 to 1987). Mr.
Papandreou has been a Member of Parliament since 1981, a member of
the Central Committee of PASOK since 1984 and a member of the
Executive Bureau of PASOK since July, 1996. He speaks fluent
English, French and Swedish.
¶3. (SBU) Papandreou will retain the Foreign Ministry for an
undetermined period of time. Papandreou would like to leverage his
previous experience as Foreign Minister and his extensive contacts,
as well as his remaining two years as President of the Socialist
International, to bring Greece back into a position of playing an
active role in regional and global policies. He has appointed two
younger "fresh faces" to run the Foreign Ministry day to day.
¶4. (SBU) Dimitris Droutsas: Appointed Alternate Foreign
Minister. A Greek Cypriot born in 1968, Mr. Droutsas was a
European Union law professor in Vienna, Austria, with an advisory
capacity to the Austrian chancellor, before becoming an adviser to
Mr. Papandreou when he arrived at the MFA in 1999. Quickly, Mr.
Droutsas became Mr. Papandreou's closest foreign policy adviser and
a central figure in the new PM's kitchen cabinet in his guise as
director of Mr. Papandreou's diplomatic office since 2004. With
Mr. Papandreou retaining the MFA portfolio, Mr. Droutsas, holding
an upgraded "alternate" minister's job, should be expected to carry
on with the bulk of the ministry's day-to-day business and
represent Mr. Papandreou as an alter ego in the majority of
obligations abroad.
¶5. (SBU) Spyros Kouvelis: Appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. Mr.
Kouvelis, born 1964, studied economics and received a graduate
degree in agricultural economics and resource management from the
University of Reading in England. He has strong interests in
environmental studies and was a WWF director for Greece between
1992 and 1997. He entered parliament in 2007 and was re-elected in
the October 4, 2009 elections. He was PASOK's spokesman on
environmental issues and widely expected to be appointed
Environment minister. He visited the U.S. on the International
Visitors Program in 2008. His appointment as Deputy FM instead was
one of the "surprises" of the new cabinet. His portfolio authority
ATHENS 00001535 002 OF 006
remains unclear. He could possibly assume tasks of international
development relations with special emphasis in promoting Mr.
Papandreou "green" international agenda.
Deputy Prime Minister
---------------------------
¶6. (SBU) Theodoros Pangalos: Selected to chair the powerful
Coordinating Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs (KSEA) which
among other things approves military procurement, and the
(inter-Ministerial) Committee for Economic and Social Policy. The
seventy-one year old Pangalos was first elected to parliament in
¶1981. He has been an almost permanent cabinet presence during
PASOK administrations over the years. French trained, influenced
by the teachings of the French Maoist movement, and negatively
inclined towards capitalism, Mr. Pangalos was a key member of the
original PASOK "revolutionary" group that surrounded the late
Andreas Papandreou. He has a long history of mercurial behavior, a
friendly disposition toward "militant" political action, and acid
language used with abandon against both friend and foe. The new
deputy PM was at the center of the 1999 Ocalan affair, and was
forced to resign his Foreign Ministry portfolio after the PKK
leader was nabbed outside the Greek embassy in Nairobi and
surrendered to Turkish intelligence operatives. He can be trusted
to speak his mind without much reservation, or attempt at
consensus, during policy debates and always lean in the left
direction as perceived by the old "revolutionaries." Pangalos comes
from an old political family. His grandfather, an army general
after whom Mr. Pangalos is named, led a military dictatorship in
the 1920s.
Prime Minister's Office
-------------------------------
¶7. (SBU) Haralambos Pamboukis: An associate professor of
international law at the Athens University, Mr. Pamboukis, born
1958, has risen to become Mr. Papandreou's primary adviser on
government organization. His appointment as Minister to the PM
(effectively Chief of Staff) makes him the PM's gatekeeper. During
1999-2001 he was Secretary General for Administration and
Organization at the MFA.
Ministry of Defense
-----------------------
¶8. (SBU) Evangelos Venizelos: Leader of a PASOK faction that has
traditionally been in opposition to Papandreou. A university
professor of constitutional law born in 1957, Mr. Venizelos (nee
Turkoglu) collided with Mr. Papandreou over the party leadership in
2007 - and decisively lost. He first entered parliament in 1993 and
has risen to the status of leading PASOK member from Thessaloniki.
Mr. Venizelos held cabinet portfolios in previous PASOK
administrations and was member of top party organs. At Defense,
Mr. Venizelos will be expected to deal with the impasse of arms
procurement and energize an organization demoralized by the
disinterest and lack of direction under the previous government.
His understanding of defense matters is minimal at present,
although his supporters suggest that he is a "fast learner" and
will make up for an absence of practical experience with his
trademark workaholic approach.
ATHENS 00001535 003 OF 006
¶9. (SBU) Panos Beglitis: The Alternate Minister of Defense, 52,
was the MFA spokesman during Mr. Papandreou's tenure as foreign
minister. He was first elected to parliament in 2007. He is a
lawyer by training with graduate studies in International Law and
International Relations. His exact portfolio authorities remain
unclear.
Ministry of Citizen's Protection (roughly equivalent to DHS)
--------------------------------------------- ----------------------
-----
¶10. (SBU) Michalis Chrysochoides: Born 1955, he has been a PASOK
member of parliament since 1989 and has been appointed to head a
new ministry which brings together from other ministries all of the
public security agencies (e.g. national police, coast guard, fire
services). The high point of his career was the roundup of the
November 17 terrorist group in 2002 while he was Public Order
minister. Mr. Chrysochoides has also held deputy minister
portfolios and was briefly PASOK party secretary. By assuming the
portfolio of a hybrid homeland security department, Mr.
Chrysochoides returns to familiar territory. One of the biggest
issues on his plate is the resurgence of domestic
terrorism/anarchist violence and the need to reorganize the Greek
police in the wake of the catastrophic December 2008 riots and the
activities of terror groups like Revolutionary Struggle. Other
issues needing urgent attention are the reorganization of Civil
Defense to better prepare for tackling forest fires and dealing
with a tremendous wave of illegal immigration.
¶11. (SBU) Spyros Vouyas: The 57-year old university professor,
appointed Deputy Minister for "Citizen's Protection," was a
relative "surprise" to some pundits given his lack of experience
with law enforcement and internal security. Mr. Vouyas, a civil
engineer by training with a graduate degree in transportation
networks, joined PASOK's parliamentary party in 2000, was briefly
PASOK party spokesman, and a deputy minister in the Simitis
administration. Although his exact portfolio is still unclear, he
will need to do learn fast on the critical questions of police
reorganization and counterterrorist strategies.
Ministry of Economy
------------------------
¶12. (SBU) Louka Katselis: Katselis will be heading the new
Economy "hyper-ministry," into which the old Merchant Marine and
Aegean Island Affairs industry has been folded. Katselis will
overlook economic development, and promote the competitiveness of
the Greek economy. She should also be expected to advise the PM on
deficit issues and external debt management. A Princeton educated
economist who taught at Yale between 1977 and 1985, 57-year old
Katselis belongs to the original Andreas Papandreou group of
"democratic reform" cadres, who worked in the 1980s on Greece's
socialist transformation as "the third road to Socialism." She has
most recently been a professor of economics at the Athens
University and was elected to parliament on October 4, 2009. She
is married to Gerasimos Arsenis, a "tsar" of the economy under
Andreas Papandreou, and later Education and Defense minister who,
unsuccessfully, attempted to become PASOK leader in 1996. Her
detractors describe her as a "populist" in her approach to economic
policy. A fringe terrorist group, Conspiracy of the Nuclei of
Fire, claimed credit for a small bomb attack on their residence in
mid-September. Shortly thereafter Ms. Katselis' website was later
hacked into, and statements in defense of the attackers
fraudulently posted to her blog.
Ministry of Finance
ATHENS 00001535 004 OF 006
----------------------
¶13. (SBU) Yorgos Papakonstantinou: He assumes the revamped
Finance ministry, which is charged with controlling waste and
fraud, making internal revenue work, and beating tax evasion - a
critical problem of the Greek economy. Mr. Papakonstantinou will be
also in charge of talks with the European Commission on the issue
of deficits and Greece's sovereign debt. 48 years old, he has been
a quiet PASOK fixture since the early 1980s, when he first joined
the staff of ex-PM Simitis as an adviser in 1982. Later, he spent
two years as a special undersecretary at the Economy ministry. He
holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and
briefly taught at the Athens Graduate School of Business and
Economics. Mr. Papakonstantinou entered parliament in 2007 as a
member from the northern district of Kozani, and became party
spokesman, where he had daily interaction Mr. Papandreou.
Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights
--------------------------------------------- ------------------
¶14. (SBU) Harris Kastanides: Another party veteran who joined
PASOK at its inception in 1974 and was one of Papandreou's key
supporters in the PASOK internal party election in November 2007,
Mr. Kastanides, born in 1956, comes from a left-of-center
Thessaloniki political family with an established reputation. He
was first elected to parliament in 1981 and has held several
ministerial portfolios, including Interior and Public Order. His
appointment at Justice drew positive remarks even from political
opponents. He will be expected to deal with the "hot potato" of
human rights at a time Greece is inundated with illegal immigrants,
not to mention problems linked to resurgent domestic terrorism, a
severe judicial backlog, and corruption. He was an International
Visitor nominated by Consulate Thessaloniki on a 1991 U.S Foreign
Policy Process tour.
Ministry of Education, Continuing Education, and Religion
--------------------------------------------- ----------------------
---
¶15. (SBU) Anna Diamantopoulou: The 50-year old Ms. Diamantopoulou,
a civil engineer by training, has a long PASOK party presence that
began in her twenties. She was a Greek commissioner for Employment
and Social Affairs on the European Commission between 1999 and
2004, and held deputy minister portfolios under Simitis. Issues on
her plate include reforming a state-controlled university system in
near standstill over myriad demands and protests, licensing of
private colleges that could provoke severe student and teaching
staff protests soon, the question of "multicultural" education, and
relations between the Greek state and religions other than Eastern
Orthodoxy.
Ministry of Interior, Decentralization and Electronic Government
--------------------------------------------- ----------------------
-----------
¶16. (SBU) Yannis Ragousis: The new Interior minister is 44 years
old. He holds a graduate degree in Economic Development from Sussex
University in England. A small town mayor on the island of Paros
between 2002 and 2006, and still the owner of a fast food
restaurant there, Mr. Ragousis joined PASOK in his university
student years and was elected member of the now obsolete central
committee in 1994, a post he held for two years. He later served as
special adviser to PASOK-appointed European Commission Greek
commissioner Christos Papoutsis. In 2007, Mr. Ragousis was brought
ATHENS 00001535 005 OF 006
into the Papandreou inner circle as party spokesman. He was
simultaneously appointed to PASOK's state list and entered
parliament after the elections of September 2007. He was later
appointed secretary of the party. He is one of the closest
Papandreou collaborators, with particular influence on internal
party dynamics. Soft spoken and deliberate, Mr. Ragousis should be
expected to be a primary lever in Mr. Papandreou's "new blood"
approach. Mr. Ragousis is expected to promote the Papandreou plans
for beating corruption and modernizing the government apparat. He
is also expected to push for the implementation of electronic
governance and oversee there-districting of the country as part of
reforming local and regional government.
Ministry of Culture and Tourism
--------------------------------------
¶17. (SBU) Pavlos Geroulanos: Mr. Geroulanos was born in 1966 and
studied at Williams, Harvard, and MIT. He was a key adviser of Mr.
Papandreou at the MFA and eventually became the director of Mr.
Papandreou's political office. The ranking member of Mr.
Papandreou's kitchen cabinet, he was also made chief of PASOK
communications in 2004. Mr. Geroulanos, as Culture Minister, will
face skepticism over the merging of the Culture Ministry with the
Ministry for Tourism.
Ministry of Health and Social Policy
------------------------------------------
¶18. (SBU) Mariliza Xenoyannakopoulou: Ms. Xenoyannakopoulou,
born 1963, has substantial European parliament experience and was
the leading member of PASOK's Euro-parliamentary group. She was
elected to the national parliament in 2007 and between 2005 and
2006 was the secretary of PASOK's National Council (the former
central committee). A lawyer by training with graduate studies at
the Sorbonne, low-key Ms. Xenoyannakopoulou is called upon to
tackle a bankrupt national health system and a creaking,
hydrocephalous social security edifice that has been flagged by
Greece's international partners and rating agencies as a key threat
to the country's economic stability.
Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change
--------------------------------------------- -------------------
¶19. (SBU) Tina Birbili: Ms. Birbili, 39, holds a Ph.D. from
Imperial College London in environmental management. Her
appointment to head the new Environment, Energy, and Climate Change
ministry, however, was seen as more a result of her capacity as
Mr. Papandreou's speechwriter, rather than of her academic
qualifications. Without any government or managerial experience,
she is placed at the helm of new ministry with a still unclear
mission. Ms. Birbili was the primary author of PASOK's proposals on
the environment and green development.
Ministry of Infrastructure, Transportation and Networks
--------------------------------------------- ---------------------
¶20. (SBU) Dimitris Reppas: A PASOK old timer, Mr. Reppas, a
dentist, was first elected to parliament in 1974. Born in 1952, M
r. Reppas was literally "present at the creation" of the party and
followed a faithful PASOK career during both the highs and the
lows under Andreas Papandreou and Costas Simitis to eventually
arrive at the doorstep of George Papandreou as a senior adviser who
ATHENS 00001535 006 OF 006
did not belong to the former's "kitchen cabinet." Mr. Reppas has
been Labor Minister and party spokesman. His current ministry is
crucially associated with economic growth and he will be expected
to oversee a substantial ministry budget, perhaps the highest next
to that of the MoD. Mr. Reppas will be responsible for absorbing
the lion's share of EU regional development funds and introducing
electronic governance as a standard institutional means of the new
PASOK government.
Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food
--------------------------------------------- ------------
¶21. (SBU) Katerina Batzeli: Born in 1958, Ms Batzeli has spent
time at the European Parliament as a staff adviser to the PASOK
parliamentary party and was also an adviser of the Greek
commissioner on the European Commission. She is the deputy academic
director of PASOK's think tank, the Andreas Papandreou institute
(ISTAME). At Agriculture, she will be dealing with the problems of
shrinking EU subsidies, protesting farmers, and consumer
protection.
Speckhard
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