ΓΙΑ ΝΑ ΜΗΝ ΞΕΧΝΙΟΜΑΣΤΕ! Δείτε πως αποκαλούν οι Αμερικάνοι τον Βενιζέλο, σε τηλεγράφημα των Wikileaks…

Άλλαξε το όνομα από εποχής πανεπιστημίου, γιατί ως Βενιζέλος θα είχε περισσότερες ψήφους στο μέλλον, λόγω της συνωνυμίας με τον Ελ. Βενιζέλο.

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

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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.

 

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¶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

 

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¶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

Ο Βενιζέλος πρωταγωνιστεί στον Σουλειμάν – Βρε μπας και είναι ρουφιάνος των Τούρκων; (φωτό)