New Greek Cabinet to be announced

Greece’s conservative prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, was today expected to announce the names of the Cabinet ministers who will constitute his incoming government, two days after his re-election.

Both Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis were widely expected to retain their posts, but there were few other prior indications as to the cabinet’s exact composition.

The government has pledged to push ahead with planned economic and social reforms, but its reduced majority of 152 seats – down from 165 – in the 300-member legislature suggested that a radical overhaul was unlikely.

Among the biggest casualties in Sunday’s vote was Education Minister Marietta Giannakou, who lost her parliamentary seat after weathering intense pressure over the past year, which brought mass public marches, strikes and university sit-ins over proposals for higher education reform.

The government has pledged to change the constitution to allow private universities to operate and to give universities greater autonomy.

An uproar over a new history textbook’s depiction of episodes in Greece’s past had added to her troubles.