Venizelos' Reward For Backing Samaras

PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, who withdrew his opposition to the closure of ERT, will see a number of his party’s officials named ministers by Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras who is planning to shake up his Cabinet in the wake of the flap over the shutdown of the national broadcaster that saw his other coalition partner, the Democratic Left (DIMAR), withdraw from the government.
Venizelos and DIMAR chief Fotis Kouvelis had opposed the firing of all 2,656 ERT workers but the PASOK leader relented to a compromise that is expected to see as many as 2,000 of them be rehired to meet a ruling by the state’s highest court, the Council of State that the station’s signal must be restored, although it said Samaras could also proceed to restructure the agency with a smaller entity of 1000-1200 workers called NERIT.
For siding with Samaras, PASOK is expected to get a number of ministers in the new Cabinet and there were reports that Venizelos would be named Deputy Prime Minister as well as Foreign Minister, replacing Dimitris Avramopoulos. If so, the PASOK leader would get to share the limelight with Samaras and take an elevated post for a party that has barely 5-6 percent of the vote.
After joining the coalition when Samaras won election on a second try last year in a poll that was a disaster for PASOK, Venizelos refused to let any of his members join the Cabinet, trying to distance himself from a possible fallout for support of continued austerity measures.
When Kouvelis pulled out of the government, he took his 14 votes in Parliament with him but Samaras, the New Democracy leader, has 125 and PASOK has 28, giving the new alliance a slim majority of 153 seats in the 300-member Parliament, enough to rule if having lost some of its legitimacy.
Kouvelis was upset that Samaras on June 11, using a ministerial decree, shut down ERT and fired all 2,656 workers there although the Premier said he would rehire 1000-1200 for a new broadcaster to be called NERIT and get it running by the end of the summer.
Kouvelis and Venizelos both objected to the plan but Venizelos accepted a compromise said to include bringing back 2,000 of the workers for now. Kouvelis didn’t, and walked, surprising Samaras who thought the leftist leader was set to go along.
Kouvelis withdrew his two ministers – Administrative Reform Minister Antonis Manitakis and Justice Minister Antonis Roupakiotis and after a stormy session of his parliamentary group, Kouvelis indicated that his party would not oppose the government’s reform drive and would support legislation deemed to be in line with it.
“DIMAR will be active, but it will also oppose arbitrary acts, despotism and policies that promote party choices and do not contribute toward the recovery of the country, society and democratic institutions,” he said.
Samaras though said his New Democracy-PASOK alliance’s control of Parliament means there won’t be early elections that could destabilize the country just as he said he has put the economy back on the road to recovery.
Venizelos reportedly wants a review of the coalition’s policy priorities before a reshuffle and was expected to discuss the issue with Samaras over the weekend, as well as possible candidates for a reshuffle which could happen as early as June 24.
The newspaper Kathimerini said that PASOK will get one minister for every two from New Democracy, effectively creating a power-sharing agreement between the long-time ideological rivals of Conservatives and Socialists.
Among those expected to keep their posts are Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias, Tourism Minister Olga Kefaloyianni and Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos. ND deputies Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Makis Voridis are also rumored to be candidates for posts.
The paper said that Samaras was optimistic that a reshuffle could be a chance to increase the government’s efficiency. Envoys from Greece’s international lenders, the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) are keeping up the pressure on the government to speed the pace of reforms, with less than half the 300 on the table having been acted upon.