Giorgos and Papoutsis' "battle" during the cabinet meeting!

An intra-government crisis came up suddenly, in response to what was said during the cabinet meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou not being able to hide his frustration and with Minister of Citizen Protection being left “up in the air” and behaving out of line.

The debate began when Mr. Papoutsis expressed his disgust at the statements made by the Deputy Minister of Development, Harris Pamboukis, who almost argued against the abolition of the autonomous Shipping ministry.

Without taking a poition on the substance of Mr. Papoutsis’ objections, Mr. Papandreou virtually called on the Minister to stop concerning himself with the issue, saying that it is not of concern at present. Seemingly going on, the PM stated that “no minister should feel that they are bonded to their chair”. This aversion seemed to initially be aimed towards Mr. Papoutsis, but even if it wasn’t, everyone could feel the tension in the air.

Later on, government spokesman Elias Mosialos said that the statement was not directed at anyone in particular, but included within it the need to promote the medium-term plan, however many the conflicts or the political cost may be. Mr. Mosialos noted that there are no plans for changes in the government structure or the people.

In any case, it seemed that frustration within the government is considerable, but not uncontrollable.