Four Ministers Out as Cabinet as Reshuffle Announced in South Cyprus

Effective from Wednesday, Vasilis Palmas will take over from Michalis Giorgallas as defence minister; Maria Panayiotou from Petros Xenophontos as agriculture minister; Marios Hartsiotis from Anna Procopiou as justice minister; and Michalis Damianos from Popi Kanari as health minister.

In addition, Nikodemos Damianou was appointed deputy minister of innovation, research and digital policy. He will replace Philippos Hadjizacharias.

Moreover, Marilena Raouna was named as the Deputy Minister of European Affairs, Panayiotis Palates as the Commissioner for Citizens, Charalambos Christophinis as the Commissioner for Mountainous Regions, and Antonia Theodosiou as Commissioner for the Environment.

In a statement, Christodoulides expressed “his sincere gratitude for the service rendered by the outgoing ministers and their commendable cooperation during their tenure.”

When he announced the decision to reshuffle members of the cabinet at the end of December, Christodoulides said “the decisions will be taken solely by me.”

Asked if the reshuffle would not hurt his relations with the parties that supported him, he replied “in no way whatsoever.”

“The parties have supported me without any agreement in exchange and have not lost their autonomy,” he said.

However, on Sunday it emerged that the political parties that supported Christodoulides were completely caught off guard by his intention for a cabinet reshuffle.

According to information from the parties, the heads of the three parties – Dipa, Edek and Diko – had expressed concern over some ministerial choices in the past over the management of certain issues.

Christodoulides has said he would announce a reshuffle before 18 months of his presidency were up. This was taken to mean the motive could be to prevent ministers from benefiting from pensions.

For the last week speculation has been rife about who would be kept in and who would be out of a job.

Announcing that a reshuffle was on the cards on December 31, Christodoulides said all the replacement ministers, deputy ministers and commissioners would have significant expertise in their respective fields.

Palmas served as president of the youth wing of the Democratic Party (Nedik) and as general secretary of Diko. He also acted as the director of the president’s press office and government spokesman in the Tasos Papadopoulos administration.

He also served as a deputy minister to president Nicos Anastasiades government, a position he held until February 2 2022, when he resigned for personal reasons.

Until now, Panayiotou served as the environment commissioner in the Christodoulides administration. She has a master’s degree in architecture, specialising in ecological building and restoration of architectural heritage monuments.

Hartsiotis has been running his own law office in Limassol since 1990.

Damianos, also a lawyer, has served as a municipal councillor in the Strovolos municipality from 2011 to 2016. He has also been the Diko vice president since 2018.

Source: Cyprus Mail