Wikileaks_Benizelos

7/28/2019 Wikileaks_Benizelos

1/5


2/5

THENS1535 Wikileaks |

//wikileaks.folders.gr/main/wikileak?id=30&locale=el[7/13/2013 10:44:05 AM]

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. Papandreous closest foreign policy adviser and

a central figure in the new PMs kitchen cabinet in his guise asdirector of Mr. Papandreous 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 PASOKs spokesman on

environmental issues and widely expected to be appointed

Environment minister. He visited the U.S. on the InternationalVisitors 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, influencedby 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 Ministers Office

-------------------------------

7. (SBU) Haralambos Pamboukis: An associate professor of

international law at the Athens University, Mr. Pamboukis, born

1958, has risen to become Mr. Papandreous primary adviser on

government organization. His appointment as Minister to the PM

(effectively Chief of Staff) makes him the PMs 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,


3/5



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. Papandreous 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 P rotection (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 Greekpolice 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 P rotection," 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 PASOKs 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 underAndreas 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 Greeces 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


4/5



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 J ustice, 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. Hewas first elected to parliament in 1981 and has held several

ministerial portfolios, including Interior and Public Order. His

appointment at J ustice 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 P rocess 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 thatbegan 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 Parosbetween 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 PASOKs 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. Heis 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.

Papandreous 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 PASOKs Euro-parliamentary group. She was

elected to the national parliament in 2007 and between 2005 and


5/5


2006 was the secretary of PASOKs 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

Greeces 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 Changeministry, 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 PASOKs 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 whoATHENS 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 Greekcommissioner on the European Commission. She is the deputy academic

director of PASOKs 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

;2009-10-07 15:16

Tags : PREL, MARR, ECON, GR, PGOV

Wikileaks_Benizelos

Documents

Transcript of Wikileaks_Benizelos