Financial Times
June 17, 2011
A pugnacious populist and former leadership rival was not the Greek prime minister’s first choice for finance minister – nor even his second.
But in appointing Evangelos Venizelos to the second hottest seat in Greek politics, George Papandreou yielded to pressure from his fractious Socialist party after threats by deputies to bring the government down over a new austerity package.
Mr Venizelos, a 54-year-old constitutional lawyer, replaced George Papaconstantinou in Friday’s cabinet reshuffle.
He faces a steep learning curve; he has no experience in a finance job and is due to participate in his first meeting with his eurozone peers this Sunday.
As minister he will face hard choices in implementing structural reforms in the public sector, including closures and mergers of some 300 state organisations.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment