Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has nominated Interior Minister Panos Skourletis for the post of SYRIZA party secretary, in an apparent bid to rally the party base ahead of the next general elections, which will be held one year from now at latest.

Skourletis will be voted in at today’s meeting of the party’s central committee, and his election is considered a given.
The choice of a top SYRIZA cadre to serve in the party’s top post is widely viewed as a signal that the government has not sidelined the party, which is expected to be a key in rebuilding SYRIZA’s links with society, which have been fractured due to the government’s implementation of a harsh bailout memorandum.

The political message from the PM is that “for us the party is a priority and an integral part of us” and plays a critical role in winning political battles. He stressed that “no government office is more important”.

He stressed that at the dawn of the post-memorandum era, the party “needs a new momentum”.

Skourletis’ departure from the government is the last piece in the puzzle of the impending cabinet reshuffle.

The interior minister was in the limelight during the deadly Mati wildfire one month ago, as he was the competent minister for the political oversight of the country’s civil protection mechanism.