President Nikos Christodoulides announced six changes to his cabinet on Friday in the second major reshuffle of his term so far, and the first in almost two years.

Michael Damianos, who had served as health minister since January last year, has been moved to the energy ministry, while Dipa MP Marinos Mousiouttas has been appointed labour minister.

Konstantinos Fytiris has been appointed justice minister, replacing Marios Hartsiotis, who has been demoted to the role of “commissioner of the presidency”, while Neophytos Charalambides has replaced Damianos as health minister.

Clea Hadjistefanou-Papaellina has been appointed as social welfare deputy minister.

As such, leaving the cabinet entirely are now former labour minister Yiannis Panayiotou, former energy minister George Papanastasiou, and former social welfare deputy minister Marilena Evangelou.

The new appointees will formally take their roles on Monday.

It had been widely expected that Hartsiotis would be relieved of his duties at the justice ministry after he made comments deemed by some as insensitive in the midst of a wildfire which tore through the Limassol district in July and killed two people.

He had said that “we had absolutely no loss of life” in the wildfire, except for the two people who did die, though he was not the only sitting minister to raise eyebrows with their comments mid-fire, as Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou had said that “the only way we could have prevented the fire was for it not to have started”.

Panayiotou, who like Hartsiotis, was appointed as a minister for the first time in the cabinet reshuffle of January last year, has held onto her position.

During the summer, newspaper Politis had reported that Christodoulides had planned a reshuffle in advance of the fire, set to be implemented after the next parliamentary elections next May.

However, the newspaper said, the fire and the surrounding crisis and ministerial missteps brought those plans forward.

Between the summer and now, the government had 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.

However, some in government-supporting circles had begun to grow frustrated with the amount of time which had elapsed between the first reports of a reshuffle in summer and its execution.

Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos had last month called on Christodoulides to be decisive over the matter last month, saying that if it were 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”.

This will now be the case, with four new ministers set to chair Council of the EU meetings over the next six months having taken up their duties just 24 days before Cyprus undertakes the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency.

Fytiris will chair the Council of the EU’s justice and home affairs council (JHA) meetings, both Charalambides and Hadjistefanou-Papaellina set to chair employment, social policy, health, and consumer affairs council (Epsco) meetings, and Damianos will chair competitiveness council (Compet) meetings in the first half of next year.

The Council of the EU’s other seven configurations will be chaired by ministers unaffected by this reshuffle during Cyprus’ six-month term.

The general affairs council (GAC) will be chaired by European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna, the foreign affairs council (FAC) will be chaired by the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, and the economic and financial affairs council (Ecofin) will be chaired by Finance Minister Makis Keravnos.

The agriculture and fisheries (Agrifish) council and the environment council (Envi) will be chaired by Maria Panayiotou, the transport, telecommunications, and energy (TTE) council will be chaired by Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, and the education, youth, culture, and sport (EYCS) meetings will be chaired by Education Minister Athena Michaelidou in the first half of next year.