President Nikos Christodoulides caught everyone unaware with the cabinet reshuffle he announced on Friday afternoon, very soon after returning from his trip to Kyiv. It was a very well-managed reshuffle, carried out with ruthless efficiency, the president leaving no time for anyone to lobby for an appointment in the media, which frequently happened during the Anastasiades presidency, nor for the parties in the government alliance to pressure him about the choices he was to make. He showed in practice that a cabinet reshuffle is the exclusive prerogative of the president.

And this is how the choices must be seen. The general impression was that it was a reshuffle dictated by the president’s plan to seek re-election, emphasising his alliance/understanding with Diko and Dipa by giving an additional ministry to each. He did not treat the other alliance party, Edek, in the same way, although he kept Maria Panayiotou, who is an Edek person, as agriculture minister despite meriting the axe for her woeful performance. She was debited, to an extent, with the inept management of the Limassol district fires in the summer and had done too little, too late about the acute water shortage we faced.

Her retention ensured Edek’s presence in the government, while Christodoulides also appointed a couple of people with Disy links. In this way, he staked his claim as the candidate of the centre-right without distancing himself from the so-called socialists of Edek. The main objective, however, was to bring Diko and Dipa closer, because without both of them his presidential prospects would suffer a big blow. There has also been speculation about a possible Diko-Disy alliance in the 2028 elections that could be linked to an agreement about the House presidency next year, which is why it is vital for Christodoulides to keep Diko on side.

Keeping the pro-government parties happy is understandable although it restricts the president’s choices. While Panayiotou survived because the president did not want to burn bridges with Edek, justice minister Marios Hartsiotis was demoted to the irrelevant post of presidential commissioner because of his links with Elam, which the president also wants to keep on side as its support is essential if he is to have a chance of re-election. One of Christodoulides’ closest associates, the former mayor of Strovolos, has already joined Elam to ensure relations with the presidential palace remain good.

In the end, the ministers that were axed were expendable – with no backing from the parties the president wanted to keep on side. Neither the deputy minister of social welfare Marilena Evangelou, who was removed because she was disappointing, nor energy minister George Papanastasiou, who seemed to have done a decent job at a very difficult ministry, had any party affiliation. It was an expedient reshuffle, the primary objective of which was not a better performing government but the tightening of the government alliance in view of the presidential elections. The decision was the president’s prerogative.