Who’s who in the new cabinet

Despite pledging that his cabinet would be made up of new faces, half of which would be women, new President Nikos Christodoulides named a council of ministers that did not meet those criteria.

But he did say he had named two former ministers to the cabinet because experience was needed for the posts of finance and interior minister.

The 11 male and six female ministers and deputy ministers will be sworn in during a ceremony at the presidential palace on Wednesday morning, but who are they?

Serving as foreign minister is law graduate Constantinos Kombos. Born in 1976 in Limassol, Kombos is a founding member of the law school at the University of Cyprus.

In 2014, he was appointed as a member of the Cyprus negotiating team and participated in all stages and levels of the Cyprus problem negotiation process.

After serving as both labour minister and finance minister under Tasos Papadopoulos, Makis Keravnos returns to his post as finance minister. From Larnaca, Keravnos also has a technocrat background, having served at the Human Resources Development Authority from 1983 to 2003.

In March 2003 he was appointed labour minister and in May 2004 finance minister, where he served until the end of 2005.

Since October 2018 he has served as a non-executive member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Cyprus.

Another former minister, from Anastasiades’ government, former Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou takes up the post of interior minister.

Ioannou oversaw the introduction of the national health scheme Gesy, and Christodoulides said this would serve as important experience for the new minister to oversee local government reform, which will see the number of municipalities on the island reduced.

A graduate of UMIST in Manchester, he founded the CC Coffee Company Ltd in 2006, which owns the rights to use Gloria Jean’s Coffees International in Cyprus. He has also served on the boards of several companies.

Defence Minister Michalis Georgallas is also not a new face, having served as a member of the National Council from 2012 to 2017 and MP for Famagusta from 2016 to 2021. During his time in parliament he was deputy chairman of the house committee on agriculture.

Education Minister Dr Athena Michaelidou has a degree in education and a PhD in educational research and evaluation. After several teaching posts she served as deputy director general of the education ministry. As of July 2022, she was appointed deputy director general of the newly created deputy ministry for culture.

New Transport Minister Alexis Vafiades has been working as an architect since 1988.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou was a mechanical engineer who has worked around Europe, gaining a wide range of experience in the energy industry on oil and gas. He also served as general manager and CEO of VTTV, where he led a team which is currently operating in Vasiliko.

Petros Xenophontos, a second technocrat with experience in the finance ministry will take on the role of agriculture minister.

Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou has worked in the finance ministry and in the House of Representatives as a research associate where he was responsible for studying government budgets and analysing the economic, social and political impact of legislative work.

Justice Minister Anna Prokopiou has among other roles worked for the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of Europe.

New Health Minister Popi Kanari served for 37 years at the state lab, and was its director for the past eight years during which she established the first accredited laboratory in the national guard for testing gunpowder in ammunition. She was also the first chairwoman of the National Anti-Doping Group in Cyprus. Kanari is the president of the Karaiskakio Foundation in which she has been a member since 1999.

Deputy Minister of Shipping Marina Hadjimanoli is another lawyer and has served as a municipal councilor in Limassol, and was also a founding member of the Limassol Youth Chamber of Commerce. During the presidential election campaign she was director of Christodoulides’ Political Office.

Deputy tourism minister is Costas Koumis, who has previously worked at the Cyprus Tourism Oerganisation (CTO). Since July 2021, he has been a member of the Public Service Commission, and was also behind the podcast Tourism in Focus.

Deputy minister for research, innovation and digital policy Philippos Hadjizacharias holds a degree in accounting and is a founding partner of PHS & Partners based in Larnaca.

Deputy minister for social welfare Marilena Evangelou has 25 years of experience in the media working as a reporter, editor and news presenter.

Deputy Minister for Culture is perhaps the most prominent member of the new cabinet, and also a friend of the new president, performer Michalis Hadjiyiannis who has made about 3,500,000 record sales.

Christodoulides was forced to defend Hadjiyiannis’ appointment when asked by a journalist why incumbent Yiannis Toumazis was not given time to finish the work he had started.

The new president said the members of the current cabinet had all publicly stated they did not want to be involved in the new cabinet. “You understand that when someone publicly makes such a statement I have to respect it,” Christodoulides said.

The new government spokesman is Constantinos Letymbiotis. He was elected as municipal officer in 2016-2022 while he served as head of the Paphos youth branch of Disy from 2015 to 2017.