Cabinet delayed a day after Papadopoulos ‘demands meeting’ over possible reshuffle

A letter sent by Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos to President Nikos Christodoulides demanding a meeting over the prospect of a forthcoming cabinet reshuffle was the reason behind the government’s decision to postpone Wednesday’s cabinet meeting by a day, according to reports. The government had announced on Tuesday afternoon that instead of its regularly scheduled Wednesday morning slot, this week’s cabinet meeting will instead take place on Thursday, though at the time offered no official reasoning as to the change. However, on Wednesday morning, newspaper Politis published an image of a letter sent by Papadopoulos to Christodoulides, dated Tuesday, in which he requested a meeting between the leadership of the party and Christodoulides “at your earliest convenience”. The subject of that meeting, the letter read, should be “the possible cabinet reshuffle”, “the forthcoming appointments to the boards of semi-state organisations in view of the end of the incumbent members’ terms”, and “the way in which the governance agreement works and the cooperation between us”. Rumours of a cabinet reshuffle have been rife since May’s parliamentary elections, which saw two of the parties which have offered support to Christodoulides, Dipa and Edek, lose all their seats in the House. Between them, the two parties control three ministries, with Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas and Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas belonging to Dipa, and Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou belonging to Edek. Diko, with its eight seats in parliament, is now the only government-supporting party in the legislature, and as such may wish to use this fact to grow its stake in the current government. This sense may be heightened after Disy and its leader Annita Demetriou elected to stand for and win the House presidency rather than exchange the role for Diko’s support for her likely campaign at the 2028 presidential election. 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. Thus far, Christodoulides has refused to be publicly drawn on the prospect of a cabinet reshuffle, saying last month that he has “no comment” to make on the matter. “Reshuffles are not announced, they are executed. When something happens, there will be an announcement made by the presidential palace,” he said. Papadopoulos’ reference to “the way in which the governance agreement works and the cooperation between us”, too, may be noteworthy, with Diko having taken up a habit in recent decades of withdrawing its support for governments in the middle of their terms. Christodoulides with Papadopoulos during the 2023 election campaign (Christos Theodorides) Since 1993, only Papadopoulos’ father Tassos Papadopoulos has served as president without at some point during his term having lost the support of Diko. The party supported Glafcos Clerides’ government from its taking of office in 1993 until 1997, and then supported Demetris Christofias’ government from its taking of office in 2008 until 2001, before also supporting Nicos Anastasiades’ government from its taking of office in 2013 until 2014. Nonetheless, relations between the government and Diko have largely been smooth, notwithstanding a shot across the government’s bows issued by Papadopoulos in January regarding what he described as “unfortunate” references to Cyprus’ political parties in statements Christodoulides made after his chief of staff resigned. “If the president’s comments also concerned Diko, we consider them to be unfortunate, as far as our own party is concerned. From the first moment that this particular video was published, Diko avoided making statements or taking positions. We gave the president time to react and manage this issue,” he said, according to news website Reporter. Christodoulides’ then chief of staff, Charalambos Charalambous, had resigned following the publication of a video which alleged campaign finance lawbreaking on the part of the president and his close associates. Following Charalambous’ resignation, Christodoulides had said that “my message to the political parties is that I am very afraid that the reaction to this situation, the results of the reaction that we see, we will see, and I say we will see, not that they will see, but we will all see”.