Edek has not been informed of any intention for Agriculture Maria Panayiotou to leave the government, either on her part or the government’s, party spokesman Giorgos Georgiou said on Friday.

“We have no such information. Our objective since this government came to power, since 2023, is to have ministers from our party in the government, so as to implement the government’s programme,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

He added that this has been the subject of recent meetings between outgoing party leader Nikos Anastasiou and President Nikos Christodoulides, and that as such, the party intends to continue in government.

Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou had said earlier in the day that Panayiotou was to leave the government and “take a position in the education sector”.

Panayiotou, a philology teacher, was included on the educational service commission’s list of appointees to teaching roles in February for the coming September.

Rumours of a cabinet reshuffle have been rife since May’s parliamentary elections, which saw Edek, as well as fellow government-supporting party Dipa, lose all their seats in the House.

It is believed that Diko, which, with its eight seats in parliament, is now the only government-supporting party in the legislature, may wish to use this fact to grow its stake in the current government.

At present, three ministries are run by Diko, with Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, Energy Minister Michael Damianos, and Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides belonging to the party.

Dipa and Edek currently control three ministries between them, with Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas and Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas belonging to Dipa, and the departing Panayiotou belonging to Edek.

Edek had expressed dissatisfaction with Christodoulides’ most recent cabinet reshuffle, which was carried out in November last year, and which saw no new ministers appointed who belonged to Edek, leaving Panayiotou as the party’s only minister.

Anastasiou said at the time that “we expected that the president … would see Edek in a better light”, though now the party is without seats in parliament, it finds itself in a weaker position.

Both House President Annita Demetriou and Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou both demanded that she be relieved of her duties earlier this year, with the former saying that “patience” with Panayiotou “has its limits”, and Stefanou saying that it is “incomprehensible” that Panayiotou remains in post.

Last year, too, it was reported that she may lose her job after the wildfire, after having made comments which were deemed insensitive. She said of the fire that “the only way we could have prevented [it] was for it not to have started”.

Meanwhile, then Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis said that she and Gregoriou had both misled parliament in their testimonies before a joint session of the House interior, agriculture, and environment committees which was convened to examine the state’s response to the fires.