President Nikos Christodoulides on Monday urged his new ministers to “work tirelessly” as they were sworn in after his announcement of a cabinet reshuffle on Friday evening.
He told them that they are “taking over the baton at a particularly demanding time” in what he described as “the great effort to change our country”, while also highlighting the fact that Cyprus will take over the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency at the beginning of next month.
He also told them they should “be informed about all the issues” related to their portfolios, and “utilise the human resources and technocrats at the ministry”, while also telling them to “listen to people and society”.
Additionally, he said his government’s programme was “founded on the ideology of social liberalism”, which, he said, “wants the state to serve the principles of equality and solidarity, ensuring the individual rights of all and creating a favourable environment for business, investment, and all the levers of economic activity”.
He then said that the government’s “highest priority and primary goal” is “of course, the end of the occupation and the reunification of our homeland”, before heaping praise on his own record in government so far.
“The country is in the best economic situation it has seen in recent decades, which allows us to proceed with effective and targeted social interventions for the benefit of vulnerable groups of the population,” he said, before adding that the government is “proceeding with the implementation of bold reforms in key sectors”.
Those reforms, he said, will “strengthen the rule of law, improve the services offered to the people, serve our policy of transparency, accountability, and zero tolerance for corruption”.
To the new ministers, he said that “your mandate is clear”, and that they must “intensify and accelerate the implementation of our government programme, which focuses on the human being, the improvement of people’s living standards, the upgrading of the quality of people’s everyday lives, without discrimination, without exceptions”.
“Our daily judge is the Cypriot people. Our compass is the constitution, the laws, and our European and international obligations … We are all accountable to the Cypriot people and to no one else,” he said.
New Energy Minister Michael Damianos said the new appointees are “fully aware that every decision, every policy, and every action we undertake will be strictly judged by society and the citizens of Cyprus”.
“We know that hard work, perseverance, and dedication are required to implement the commitments we undertake and to meet the high expectations we have set as a government,” he said.
He then promised Christodoulides that “with full awareness of the responsibility and the burden we bare, I assure you that we will cooperate closely and comprehensively, giving our best selves in every sector”.
Meanwhile, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis was keen to deny accusations that the reshuffle had been conducted for party political purposes, telling CyBC radio on Monday morning that “the only strategic move that President Christodoulides has in mind is the implementation of the government’s programme”.
He stressed that the question of which political party a minister may belong to was not Christodoulides’ “exclusive guiding principle”, and said that “someone should not be excluded due to their party identity when it is judged that the person in question has the qualifications and ability to contribute and assist” the government.
Later, he added that the reshuffle “serves the implementation of the policies of the government’s programme at the pace set by [Christodoulides]”.
“No one can know more than the president of the Republic, who collaborates daily with all members of the government, over what the right time to make changes is,” he said.
He was also asked about why Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou retained her position after it had been widely expected that she would be relieved of her duties, and said that “obviously, the president of the Republic has made his decisions based on his own assessment”.
Six changes have been made to Cyprus’ cabinet, with Michael Damianos, who had served as health minister since January last year, having been moved to the energy ministry, while now former Dipa MP Marinos Mousiouttas has been appointed labour minister.
Costas Fitiris has left his post as the chief marina officer of the Ayia Napa marina to become justice minister, replacing Marios Hartsiotis, who has been demoted to the role of “commissioner of the presidency”, while Neophytos Charalambides, most recently of the Limassol city council, 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.
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 Maria Panayiotou had said that “the only way we could have prevented the fire was for it not to have started”.
While Panayiotou held onto her position, her retention of her job was not enough to satisfy her party, Edek, however, with the party saying that the reshuffle caused it “strong dissatisfaction”.
“Edek’s sincere efforts so far to contribute with proposals and positions to the success of the government’s work and its selfless behaviour seem to have not been appreciated,” the party said, before adding that “the rudimentary information shows a lack of respect for Edek.”
An extraordinary meeting of Edek’s political bureau was called on Sunday, with it having initially been rumoured that the party would withdraw its support for the government.
However, following that meeting, it said that it had instead “authorised party leader Nikos Anastasiou to arrange a meeting with [Christodoulides] on the subject of re-evaluating Edek’s relationship with the government”, and that the evaluation in question would not impact Edek’s “numerical participation in the government”.
In relatively recent memory, Edek has supported and then withdrawn from the governments of both Glafcos Clerides and Demetris Christofias.
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