Reshuffle move prompted by polls

Just seven months after a triumphant reelection, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proceeded last Wednesday with "corrective moves," alarmed by opinion polls showing that public safety is citizens' second biggest concern after rising prices.

While the government has made moves to address the rising cost of living, which, to some extent, was acknowledged by public opinion, concern began to grow that the issue of security, which has long been championed by ruling New Democracy, could be its undoing.

"Then the die was practically cast" that the prime minister would make changes in the relevant ministry, a government source told Kathimerini, noting that Mitsotakis decided there should be no further delay. 

Sources stressed that the prime minister did not believe the Citizen Protection Ministry was wholly to blame. However, successive operational errors inevitably...