Ministry of Interior to “break up”

The Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction is apparently going to break up with the Ministry of Public Order and the Citizen Protection department is to be detached and merge with the Ministry of Justice. The announcement, which is making headlines in Greece on Thursday, apparently came after the government’s frustration with the ongoing occupations and political tensions.

A report from the state news agency reveals that government sources argued that in a meeting held in the Prime Minister’s office on Wednesday on the hunger strike, the PM Alexis Tsipras appeared frustrated by the lack of coordination between the Ministries of Justice and Public Order.

At the meeting, the Minister of Interior Nikos Voutsis, the Alt Minister of Public Order Yannis Panousis and the Minister of Justice Nikos Paraskevopoulos agreed that the two ministries should merge, in order to further develop the cooperation between the two on maters of human rights and security.

Some sources have estimated though that the split of the Public Order Ministry from the Interior Ministry is also related to the stance it kept towards the recent series of university occupations and the police intervention. Government sources however disputed any disagreement between Ministers Panousis and Voutsis.