Greece names first openly gay minister

Athens: The center-right government in Greece named the country’s first openly gay minister in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday.

Nicholas Yatromanolakis, 44, was named as the new deputy minister of culture after being promoted from the position of general secretary at the ministry.

The government retained its ministers of health and finance and most other key positions in the reshuffle.

Greece is reeling from the impact of the pandemic that caused a spike in deaths in the fall and is expected to have caused a 10.5 per cent contraction of its gross domestic product in 2020.

Despite the difficulties, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis left most key cabinet positions unchanged, retaining Christos Staikouras as finance minister and Vasilis Kilikias as health minister. Vaccinations were expanded from nine to 50 hospitals nationwide Monday.