Election talk after second Greek reshuffle in months

ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sparked early election rumours Monday by holding his second cabinet reshuffle in five months, promoting several hardliners and appointing Greece's first openly gay junior minister.

Among the changes, Mitsotakis appointed a new government spokesman and a new interior minister -- the main person responsible for planning elections, which are normally due in 2023.

"The cabinet presented today has an electoral outlook," said Avgi, the daily of the main opposition leftist Syriza party.

The new interior minister is Makis Voridis, formerly agriculture minister and founder in the 1990s of a now-defunct ultra-nationalist party affiliated with the far-right National Front in France.

In 2019 Voridis denied that he had anti-Semitic beliefs after a prominent Greek Jewish official said he had a "dark past".

Another conservative hardliner is Sofia Voultepsi, the new deputy migration minister, who in 2014 called asylum seekers "unarmed invaders" in a parliament speech.

The cabinet also includes Greece's first openly gay cabinet member, 44-year-old deputy culture minister Nicholas Yatromanolakis.

Mitsotakis has a high personal approval rate in polls, and his conservative New Democracy party leads Syriza by some 15 points.

He has repeatedly denied plans to hold early elections.

But analysts have noted that Mitsotakis may seek to capitalise on his popularity, as the next elections will be held under a proportional representation law that makes it harder for the winner to secure an absolute majority.

Greece weathered the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic with comparatively low cases and fatalities, but infections spiked in the autumn.

Over 14,000 people have been infected since February, and nearly 5,000 have died.

Mitsotakis faced criticism after relaxing lockdown restrictions for retail and churches over Christmas.