Greek PM Alexis Tsipras announced a reshuffle of his government on Tuesday, keeping key ministers in place and bringing in 13 new names, as Kathimerini daily comments.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias, Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, as well as Defence Minister Panos Kamenos keep their places.

Interior minister Panos Skourleti became the Central Committee Secretary of Tsipras’s Syriza party. Skourletis was replaced by Alexis Haritsis, who previously served as alternate economy minister.

Greek PM moved his administrative reform minister Olga Gerovasili to the Civil Protection ministry. Katerina Papacosta, the independent MP and former conservative cadre, was appointed deputy minister of citizens’ protection under Olga Gerovassili. Olga Gerovassili was replaced by another newcomer, former socialist minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou.

Tsipras appointed the government’s general secretary Michalis Kalogirou as new justice minister and promoted alternate defense minister Fotis Kouvelis by giving him the shipping portfolio. He also appointed Myrsini Zorba, a professor of cultural theory, as culture minister (Reuters).

Analysts estimate that the objective of the reshuffle was to give the government a new momentum and to broaden SYRIZA’s political base ahead of the next general elections.

A day before, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivered a speech on the post-bailout era at a meeting of SYRIZA’s central committee on Monday.

“Greece will become a modern, progressive and European country following the critical and historical completion of its fiscal adjustment programs, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, adding that the completion of the loan memoranda “is not the end, but the starting point of a new era for the country.”

The swear in ceremony of the new members of the government will be held at 14:00 on Wednesday, in the presence of President Prokopios Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (read here the new cabinet name list).

M.V.