The wife of the president, Philippa Karsera Christodoulidou was promoted to the post of ambassador, the Public Service Commission announced on Monday, together with another three employees of the foreign ministry, who will all take up their ambassadorial posts on May 15.

The question everyone could now be asking, is whether Karsera Christodoulidou will be posted abroad as an ambassador or will carry on enjoying the preferential treatment she has been enjoying since her husband was appointed director of the president’s diplomatic office in 2013. Since then, his wife has been based at the foreign ministry in Nicosia, which is unheard of for any high-ranking diplomat, no matter how well connected he or she may be.

When Nikos Christodoulides was appointed minister of foreign affairs in 2018, she carried on working at the ministry apart from being seconded to the presidential palace for a short while. This was not an ideal arrangement but the idea of transferring her to another ministry was never entertained by anyone. On the contrary, Karsera Christodoulidou created a Secretariat at the foreign ministry, described by some at the time as a super-ministry, through which she monitored the dealings of all ministries with the EU. She was known as acting director of the secretariat because her rank was not high enough for her to hold the post permanently.   

When she returned to work after her sabbatical that coincided with her husband’s election campaign, she was appointed director of consular affairs and Schengen, under the authority of the foreign minister who was appointed, according to the gossip, at her behest. Some are asking who is actually calling the shots at the foreign ministry.

This is a very awkward situation that should never have been allowed to happen, and it would not have happened if the law was different. Under the existing public service law, a civil servant is entitled to leave without pay for a maximum of two years. At the end of the two-year sabbatical a civil servant has the option of returning to work or resigning from the service. This was the choice Karsera Christodoulidou had after the period of her leave without pay was completed.

Understandably, she did not want to give up all the benefits of being a civil servant including the big pension that would be very lucrative now she has been promoted to the rank of ambassador, so she could be free to perform all her duties as the president’s wife. Her husband is not guaranteed a second term in office so why would she sacrifice her civil service career, which may have been given a boost by being married to the president, for a five-year stint as first lady?

Karsera Christodoulidou should never have been working while her husband was the president and this is why the existing civil service law needs to be amended.