Greek PM reshuffles Cabinet to maintain control

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis carried out a sweeping reshuffle of his Cabinet Wednesday as his party struggles to retain its razor-thin control of parliament amid a string of scandals and the worst civil unrest the country has seen in decades.

The shakeup, which comes barely a year after the prime minister's re-election in 2007, was not a surprise. But the extent of the reshuffle was.

Karamanlis replaced nine of 16 ministers, including Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis.

Alogoskoufis is credited with maintaining Greece's growth in a slumping global economy. But his prescription for unpopular economic reforms swelled public discontent against the center-right government in recent months.

The prime minister, however, kept in place the Interior Minister, despite criticism of the ministry's handling of the police during a month of riots in Greece.

The country erupted in riots and demonstrations December 6 when a police bullet killed 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, and protests have continued almost daily since then.

Students have led demonstrations against what they call police brutality, while labor unions have joined in to protest wage freezes, the rising cost of living, pension cuts and the fear of mass layoffs.

Hundreds have been arrested and shops and banks in Athens have been damaged.

Karamanlis has also come under scathing criticism for his government's controversial land deals in which prime plots of state-owned real estate were swapped for lower-value tracts of land owned by a monastery in northern Greece.

The government was forced to revoke the deals, but the public and political outcry that followed has affected its credibility and soured the prime minister's political fortunes.

A flurry of opinion polls released in recent months show conservatives trailing behind rival socialists for the first time since rising to power in March 2004.

Karamanlis' party controls 151 seats in the 300-seat Greek parliament -- a majority of one.