New Greek PM Mitsotakis Taps Staikouras for Finance Minister
New Greek PM Mitsotakis Taps Staikouras for Finance Minister
(Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has chosen Christos Staikouras as finance minister following Sunday’s election victory, tapping a budget specialist with broad experience of negotiating with the heavily indebted nation’s creditors.
Staikouras, 45, was alternate finance minister in the New Democracy party government from 2012 to 2015, and most recently shadow finance chief. One of his first tasks will be to negotiate the relaxation of Greece’s fiscal targets to free up room for tax cuts and other measures designed to boost economic growth.
Greece has agreed to annual primary surpluses of 3.5% of gross domestic product until 2022 but Mitsotakis reiterated Sunday that one of his priorities is to lower the targets. A European Union official warned Monday that Greece may already miss its budget goal for 2019 due to the previous government’s spending measures.
Staikouras, a former Bank of England analyst and adviser to the board of Eurobank Ergasias SA, has been a lawmaker since 2007 and has taught at Greek universities as well as London’s City University. He was coordinator of economic affairs for New Democracy while the party was in opposition.
Mitsotakis, who was sworn in earlier on Monday, appointed the following key ministers, his new spokesman, Stelios Petsas, said at a news conference in Athens:
Adonis Georgiades, Economy and Investment
Georgiades, a 46-year-old TV salesman, writer and publisher and former lawmaker with the nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally, joined New Democracy in 2012. He served as health minister in the coalition government of Antonis Samaras and as deputy growth and competitiveness minister in the interim government of Lucas Papademos.
One of his immediate tasks will be to push ahead with one of Greece’s biggest investment projects, the long-delayed development of the former Athens airport. Known as the Hellinikon project, the flagship venture aims to transform the site -- more than two times the size of New York’s Central Park -- into a metropolitan park including luxury hotels, casino, marinas and apartments.
A controversial figure, representing the right wing of New Democracy, Georgiades has raised eyebrows with some of his statements -- which he later retracted -- about immigrants, the LGBT community, Jews and Muslims.
Konstantinos Hatzidakis, Environment and Energy
Mitsotakis appointed Hatzidakis as one of New Democracy’s two vice presidents when he became leader of the party in 2016. The 54-year-old held various ministerial posts from 2007 to 2014, including transport, communications, infrastructure and development, serving under former New Democracy prime ministers Samaras and Kostas Karamanlis. He was also elected three times as a member of the European parliament.
Hatzidakis was transport minister when the Karamanlis government concluded the privatization of Olympic Airlines in 2009. As energy minister his immediate challenges will be to deal with struggling Public Power Corp. SA, Greece’s largest electricity provider, speed up privatizations in the sector and intensify efforts to further open the energy market.
Nikolaos Dendias, Foreign Affairs
Dendias, a 59-year-old lawyer and former defense minister in the Samaras government, has also held the justice and citizen-protection portfolios. He takes office at a time of escalating tensions with neighbor Turkey over its offshore drilling in Cyprus.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eleni Chrepa in Athens at echrepa@bloomberg.net;Paul Tugwell in Athens at ptugwell1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sotiris Nikas at snikas@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers
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