Πραγματικά απίστευτο… Το τηλεγράφημα αφορά την περιγραφή
της κυβέρνησης Παπανδρεου το 2009. Δείτε το ολόκληρο:
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 ATHENS 001535
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
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
http://lithosfotos.blogspot.gr/2014/03
http://logia-tou-aera.blogspot.gr/2014/03
