Greece ‘s Deputy Culture Minister Pantelis Kapsis, who was brought on board to direct replacement of the closed former national broadcaster ERT with a new station in the face in withering criticism, said he will leave the government in March once the it is fully up and running with a full range of programs.
Kapsis was appointed last summer after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, moving to meet the orders of international lenders. summarily shut down ERT and fired all 2,653 of its workers without notice. Ironically, most of them had been hired by previous administrations of his New Democracy Conservatives and his coalition partner the PASOK Socialists although critics said the payroll was padded with high-paying no-show jobs.
The interim station now running, EDT, was widely ignored as it showed mostly 50-to-60 year old black-and-white films and canned documentaries but has begun showing news programs. It was to be dubbed NERIT when the programming schedule was filled in and Greeks are being assessed a monthly fee in their electric bills to pay for it.
Kapsis told To Vima that the new service will begin broadcasts in March, leading to his exit from the government. “There is no reason for me to stay on,” he said.
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