Mini-reshuffle to see changes, Christodoulides at ForMin

President Anastasiades is expected to keep a significant part of his current Council of Ministers, with key associates continuing to hold on to important cabinet posts, after his wide-margin election on Sunday gave him the confidence to continue with his policies.

The President has already denied several rumours of cabinet changes, but one post seems to be sure to se a change, with longtime confidant Ioannis Kasoulides declaring his willingness a while earlier to step down as Foreign Minister. That post is widely expected to go to Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides, a post that Kasoulides too had held in the Glafcos Clerides administration, in addition to Foreign Minister and later Euro MP.

Press reports suggest that Health Minister George Pamborides had also asked to be excused from the new cabinet, saying that his gargantuan work to get the national health scheme (GESY) off the ground, with cross-party parliamentary supported, now only needed a technocrat to manage it and see it implemented starting from 2019.

The president will also appoint three junior ministers – for shipping, innovation, and tourism and development – who are beyond the constitutional limitation of the ten-member cabinet, as they will have executive powers, report directly to the president, but have no say in the Council of Ministers.

Considering that already expressed his the President has wish to appoint a wider-appear cabinet, he may also resort to non-party figures, as well as heed to the pressure of increasing the female membership of his administration, presently represented solely by Labour and Insurance Minister Zeta Emilianidou.

The Finance Ministry, currently burdened on the shoulders of Haris Georghiades, still has many challenges ahead, including resolving the issue of the high rate of nonperforming loans, the initial public offering (IPO) for the Co-operative Cyprus Bank, improving international ratings and increasing revenues, while trying to keep government expenses and the payroll in check.

The Energy Ministry could possibly remain in the hands of Yiorgos Lakkotrypis, who has announced that the Eni-Total exploration team would begin drilling in offshore Cyprus waters as early as this week, thus continuing to monitor the situation up close.

Beyond trying to restart the Cyprus talks, which seems a tall order considering Ankara’s unwillingness to resolve the problem any time soon, the next major event on President Anastasiades’ agenda is the rescheduled trilateral summit with the Prime Minsters of Greece and Israel, after Benyamin Netanyahu postponed the earlier meeting two months ago, due to domestic issues.

That meeting will now possibly reconvene in late April or early May.

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