Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou appointed a new finance minister in a broad cabinet reshuffle on Friday in an effort to push through a wave of new unpopular austerity measures to prevent the country from going bankrupt, according to dpa. After two days of political turmoil that threatened to bring down the government, Papandreou appeared to have met the demands of his wayward party deputies for the time being by replacing inexperienced loyalists with party veterans. Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos was appointed as finance minister, replacing George Papaconstantinou, who had become unpopular after imposing budget cuts and tax hikes as part of last year's 110-billion-euro international bail out deal. Venizelos, 57, a constitutional law professor, was once Papandreou's biggest rival after challenging him for the leadership of the Socialist party after it lost national elections in 2007. He has previously held the posts of government spokesperson, culture minister, development minister and justice minister. "The country must be saved and it will be saved," Venizelos told journalists. The prime minister said the new cabinet will see through a difficult programme of fiscal and structural reforms while at the same time do more to stimulate growth. "The finance minister will complete critical negotiations and implement a particularly painful and difficult programme of great structural changes, which will make our economy viable in the coming years," Papandreou said in his first speech to his new cabinet. Papaconstantinou has been appointed environment minister. Other portfolios were redistributed to address demands for faster reforms and party heavyweights were promoted to key posts at the expense of Papandreou loyalists. As part of the reshuffle, a new ministry was created to help reduce the bloated public sector. Under the mid-term austerity plan the government intends to reduce the 750,000-strong public service sector down to a fifth. The new cabinet was sworn in shortly after being named and a confidence vote is scheduled to take place at midnight Tuesday. The immediate task of the finance minister will be to press ahead with a mid-term fiscal plan that foresees 28 billion euros in budget cuts and tax hikes as well as a privatization drive worth 50 billion euros. Venizelos will also have to negotiate a crucial second bail out package with the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government is pushing to have the austerity package passed by parliament by the end of June. In a statement intended to ease market concerns, the European Union's top economic official, Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, on Thursday said eurozone countries will likely agree on Sunday to pay Greece its next rescue loan, saving it from the immediate risk of default. In Berlin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that there appeared to be a greater chance that Greece will get a second bailout after agreeing with French President Nicholas Sarkozy that private investors should be part of the solution but that their participation had to be on a "voluntary" basis. The second bail out - thought to be worth about 80 to 120 billion euros - is needed to keep Greece solvent beyond 2012, when coverage from the current rescue package starts to tail off
