Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos on Monday called on President Nikos Christodoulides to be decisive over whether or not he will perform a cabinet reshuffle, saying that if it is to happen, it should have happened already.

“If it is to be done, it should have been done yesterday. Because in 40 days, Cyprus will undertake the [rotating] presidency of the [Council of the] European Union,” he said.

To this end, he added that “it would be unfair both for the ministers and for our country to appoint people who will take over important committees in the EU and will determine policy at an important level and not be prepared”.

Rumours of a potential cabinet reshuffle have been abounding since the summer, with commentators having suggested that ministerial hirings and firings may have followed the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district and killed two people in July.

In particular, it was suggested that Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis and Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou could lose their jobs, with both having been on the end of fierce criticism for comments which were perceived as insensitive in the midst of the fires.

Hartsiotis had said that “we had absolutely no loss of life” in the wildfire, except for the two people who did die, while Panayiotou had said that “the only way we could have prevented the fire was for it not to have started”.

Both Hartsiotis and Panayiotou had been appointed to their current roles in the reshuffle which took place in January last year, with Panayiotou being promoted from her previous position of environment commissioner and Hartsiotis an outside appointment.

During the summer, newspaper Politis had reported that Christodoulides had planned a reshuffle in advance of the fire, with that reshuffle having been intended for after the next parliamentary elections, which are set for next May.

Publicly, the government has kept its cards close to its chest, with spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis having answered that a cabinet reshuffle is “a constitutional right held by the president of the Republic” when asked about the matter.

“The president judges the members of his cabinet on a daily basis, as we are judged by society, and, whenever he decides that the time is right, he will make announcements,” he said.

Hartsiotis, too, said the prospect of a reshuffle is “clearly a matter for the president”, and lamented that the matter has been “repeatedly raised and answered”.

“We, as ministers, must remain in our positions to implement the government’s programme, to implement the daily programme we have,” he said.