The new Finance Minister, Professor Gikas Hardouvelis, will have to deal soon with the announcement of the evaluation report of IMF which will probably include the prerequisites for the next instalments and measures of debt relief. It is also said that the report will include the IMF’s warnings regarding the reform program and stability of the country. The concern of the Fund for the “policy shift” of the government regarding the economy is now clear.

Also, European Commission will keep a rather cautious attitude towards the government, especially after the removal of Theoharis and it seems that the European partners will not provide immediately their support to the new government scheme leaving Mr Samaras to unfold the “tangle” of initiatives and show how far he is willing to stretch the rope.

Regarding the internal affairs of Greece, Mr Hardouvelis will have a time credit as the new Minister of Finance and he will have the chance to negotiate the relief measures that the society needs and should be taken, according to his opinion which was expressed publicly in the past.

Also, Mr. Hardouvelis begins from a very good starting point as far as the relations with our European partners is concerned: he already knows Mr Thomsen, Mr Masuch and Mr Morss and nobody has to say anything negative. In fact, he was one of the first persons for whom they said that they found signs of understanding and “common sense” to negotiate.

However, Mr Hardouvelis must convince lenders that Greece follows the agreed measures in order to receive the next instalments of June and July. But, he must put forward and negotiate the tax cuts issue, while the audit will be conducted for the measures and instalments of September. And all these with such a short deadline, just 3-4 months from now.

As in 2012, however, once again, the success of the negotiations does not depend only on the Ministry of Finance, but it is mainly a matter of several ministries which will be called to take the necessary measures.