One 24 hours after the swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Palace and one 48 hours after the reshuffle, the government received a rather unexpected “own goal” last night after the resignation of the now former Deputy Minister of Research and Innovation Aristos Doxiadis, following the shots fired at him by SYRIZA.

More specifically, Koumoundourou accused Mr Doxiadis of being the legal representative of the company Apollo SA, which had been fined millions by the Competition Commission in 2009 for unfair practices in the foreign-language book sector and closed down shortly afterwards, leaving “debts” to the state and suppliers.

The handling of the Doxiadis case, if anything, is proving problematic. The government was caught off guard on Saturday, when the “Apollo case” began to “bubble up” on social media. Until then, according to protothema.gr, Doxiadis appeared to have stated before taking office that there was no shadow concerning him. On Sunday morning, Doxiadis was asked for clarification, while he chose not to respond to the criticism of him by SYRIZA. A little later in the afternoon, Mr. Doxiadis provided the required clarifications, saying, among other things, that he had no substantial involvement in the company, and that he had been acquitted in criminal courts in 2013. However, he chose to resign, opting to protect his privacy and that of the government, as he explained in his own post.

It is a given that Doxiadis’ resignation after a few days will not be a matter of political conflict, however it did overshadow the positive message the government wanted to send out with the broad reform that Mitsotakis initiated. Notably, Doxiadis was one of the technocrats the government was putting forward to maintain its connection with a more centrist audience that seeks to tap successful people from civil society. Perhaps within the day his replacement will be announced, and it remains to be seen whether he will again be a technocrat or a politician.

Mitsotakis in the ministries

Starting today, however, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will begin visits to government ministries in an attempt to give ministers the message of the need for efficiency and “quick wins” in person. The prime minister is scheduled to visit the Finance ministry at 10:00 a.m. today, where he will meet with the new Kyriakos Pierrakakis economy “czar,” Nikos Papathanasis, deputy minister Nikos Papathanasis and two deputy ministers Giorgos Kotsiras and Thanos Petralias.

And in his remarks at Saturday’s cabinet meeting, Mitsotakis highlighted the economy and the citizen’s wallet as a top priority. “The goal of all of us, but first and foremost of the economic staff, is to transfer this collective progress to the wallet of every citizen. In other words, to be translated, quite simply, into better salaries, lower taxes, more and better jobs,” Mitsotakis said, making it clear, however, that fiscal stability will not be put in question.

Mitsotakis will be at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday, while on Wednesday he will meet with the leaderships of the Ministries of Interior and Public Administration. Several new ministers and deputy ministers were also in their offices yesterday, and from today they start work at full speed. Notably, Deputy Transport Minister Kostas Kyranakis began visiting critical railway infrastructure yesterday, something he will continue this week, while today he will answer a question in Parliament from Plefsi Eleftherias president Zoe Konstantopoulou, who had submitted a question to outgoing Infrastructure Minister Christos Staikouras.