Greek PM names new finance, transport ministers after mass protests

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday named new finance and transport ministers and handed other key portfolios to younger officials in a reshuffle designed to shore up support for his government after mass protests over a 2023 train crash.

The reshuffle, the second since the centre-right government won re-election in 2023, comes weeks after hundreds of thousands took to the streets demanding justice over Greece's worst ever rail disaster, in which 57 people died, most of them students.

It was Greece's biggest protest in years and has shaken Mitsotakis' government, which has slipped in the opinion polls though it survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence last week over the crash.

Political analysts doubted whether the reshuffle would stem popular anger towards Mitsotakis and his government, although the next parliamentary election is not scheduled until 2027.

"It is uncertain whether such changes would alter people's perception of the government or make it more effective," political analyst Costas Panagopoulos said. 

The new finance minister is Kyriakos Pierrakakis, a 42-year-old former computer scientist who has spearheaded the digitisation of many state services in his previous role as digital governance minister.

He replaces Kostis Hatzidakis, who now becomes deputy prime minister charged with coordinating economic growth policies as Greece seeks to extend its rebound from a 2009-2018 debt crisis which prompted deep cuts in wages and pensions.

New Transport Minister Christos Dimas, 44, will supervise an overhaul of Greece's railways. The government promised to modernize the railway network after the crash, but the safety gaps that caused the accident have not been tackled two years on, a state inquiry found last month.

Mitsotakis also picked Stavros Papastavrou and Nikos Tsafos, both close aides and experienced technocrats, for the environment and energy portfolios as Greece hopes to make its economy greener while also looking for gas reserves on its territory.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Gareth Jones)