ATHENS (Reuters) -Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to reshuffle his cabinet after his centre-right party performed worse than expected in the European Parliament election.
The new government’s composition will be announced by the government spokesman at 11:30 a.m. (0830 GMT), a statement by the prime minister’s office said.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party, which has led Greece since 2019, came first in Sunday’s EU election with 28.3% of the vote but missed a 33% target Mitsotakis had set during his pre-election campaign and was well below the 40% his party received in a June 2023 national election.
Earlier this week, Mitsotakis ruled out a snap election, saying that he would move ahead with corrective moves to show Greek “people that we have taken their message into account”.
Government sources told Reuters that Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis and Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis were likely to retain their posts.
Speaking to Greek Alpha TV station on Tuesday, Mitsotakis attributed what he called Sunday’s “protest” vote to the high cost of living, promising that his government would try within budget limits to combat spiralling prices of food products. He ruled out a sales tax cut.
He has also promised to reduce employers’ social security contributions.
Despite its economic recovery after a decade of pain, wages in Greece still lag behind the EU average.
A record 59% of registered voters abstained in the EU vote.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou; Editing by Alison Williams and Ros Russell)
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