Greece’s premier Alexis Tsipras announced a reshuffle of his government in an effort to reverse the tide as his SYRIZA party lags well behind conservative New Democracy in opinion polls.

The reshuffle included 13 new faces, but there were no major changes in the ministries of Finance, Defense, Health, Education and Foreign Affairs.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Foreign Minister Nikos Kotziasand Defense Minister Panos Kammenos were kept on board.

Among the new faces, there were two women, Mariliza Xenogianakapoulou and Myrsini Zorba who are to lead the ministries of Administrative Reform and Culture respectively.

On Monday Tsipras sought to revamp the ruling leftist party appointing influential Interior Minister Panos Skourletis as SYRIZA’s new central committee general secretary. He is replaced by Alexandros Haritsis.

What comes as a relative surprise is that the Ministry of Public Order passes onto the hands of two women for the first time, with Olga Gerovasili as the minister and the ex-New Democracy MP Katerina Papakosta, as the deputy minister.

Source: Tasos Kokkinidis/greekreporter