Απίστευτο… δείτε πως αποκαλούν οι Αμερικάνοι τον Βενιζέλο, σε τηλεγράφημα των Wikileaks…

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

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¶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)

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—–

¶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

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¶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

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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

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¶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

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—

¶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

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———–

¶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

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¶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

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¶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

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¶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

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¶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

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¶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

ant-ntp