EUROZONE-GREEECE/CABINET/TSIPRAS-TSAKALOTOS Greek PM re-appoints bailout negotiator Tsakalotos as finance minister

Record ID: 135163

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREEECE/CABINET/TSIPRAS-TSAKALOTOS Greek PM re-appoints bailout negotiator Tsakalotos as finance minister
  • Date: 22nd September 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (FILE - AUGUST 28, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOUZALAS TALKING TO REPORTERS OUTSIDE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION
  • Embargoed: 7th October 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAODZ05DP12XQ09IWRTO0IGJGG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unveiled his new, and largely unchanged, cabinet on Tuesday (September 22) following his leftist Syriza Party's decisive election victory in Sunday's general election.
    The new appointments were announced by government spokeswoman, Olga Gerovassili shortly before midnight local time (2045GMT).
    Euclid Tsakalotos resumes his post as finance minister, with George Chouliarakis as deputy finance minister.
    Tsakalotos, a low-key Oxford-trained Marxist economist, was at the finance helm when Greece and its creditors produced an 86 billion euro loan accord on August.
    Chouliarakis, who was finance minister in the caretaker government during the recent election campaign, was a senior member of the bailout negotiation team, known for his grasp of details.
    The appointments come ahead of a review by lenders starting next month on progress in meeting bailout targets, recapitalising the country's banks and holding discussions that Greece wants on debt relief.
    The Dutch-born and British-educated Tsakalotos is a stark contrast to his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis, who quit Tsipras's government in disagreement over the bailout in July. He frequently riled lenders with outspoken and occasionally undiplomatic remarks, including one where he said he wore 'creditors' loathing with pride'.
    The government's two main tasks will be to ensure that the bailout given by the eurozone in exchange for deep economic reforms does not go off track, and to handle Greece's huge refugee problem.
    Of the record 430,000 refugees and migrants who have made the journey across the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, 309,000 have arrived via Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration.
    Many of Greece's partners, particularly in eastern Europe, want Athens to stop allowing the refugees to pass north on a trek to Germany and other wealthy northern countries.
    Taking charge of that portfolio within the interior ministry to handle Greece's huge refugee problem is Yiannis Mouzalas, another member of the caretaker government who was retained as migration minister.
    An active member of the Doctors of the World charity, Mouzalas has taken part in relief missions to trouble spots including Kobane in Syria.
    But it is the implementation of the bailout, which was agreed after months of bitter negotiations in which Tsipras railed against austerity being imposed on Greece, that will be the government's overwhelming task.
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