LONGTIME AKEL cadre Kyriacos Triantafyllides has been earmarked as the new Minister of the Interior to succeed Andreas Christou, who will most likely be stepping down early next month.
This week Christou confirmed his interest in running for the mayorship of Limassol, his hometown.
Though Christou earned the administration points in being the most popular minister, a question mark had hovered above his continued presence there, especially after the Limassolian came out in favour of the Annan plan, against the official government line.
During his three-and-a-half years at the Interior Ministry, the moderate Christou has stayed out of partisan confrontations, earning the respect of the public and politicians from all quarters, so much so that commentators are already lamenting his imminent departure.
Since the candidates for the December municipal elections need to be decided soon, Christou’s party has reportedly found a replacement for him at the Interior Ministry: Kyriacos Triantafyllides, a former permanent secretary at the same ministry, will be returning to familiar turf.
But in doing so Triantafyllides will have to give up his post as MEP, which will go to Neoklis Silikiotis, the runner-up for AKEL in the May 2004 Euro-elections.
Barring the unexpected, then, the communist party will therefore be retaining its four government portfolios. Currently, its four men in the Papadopoulos administration are: Health Minister Harris Charalambous, Foreign Minister George Lillikas, Transport Minister Harris Thrasou, and Christou.
Speculation is rife that AKEL, the senior partners in the government coalition, are slowly but surely putting distance between themselves and ruling DIKO, as they look ahead to the 2008 presidential elections.
Dissatisfaction within the AKEL rank-and-file over the President’s foreign policy is said to be swelling, so in case the communists decide to run their own candidate in the next elections, they’ll need the undivided attention of all their big guns.
Meanwhile Christou all but confirmed his candidacy for Limassol mayor yesterday, saying an announcement to that effect would probably be made “in the first two weeks of September”.
And the incumbent mayor, Demetris Kontides, who also hails from AKEL, reiterated there was no antagonism between himself and Christou for the job.
In private, however, Kontides, who has served two successful terms as mayor in the coastal city, must be less than thrilled with the development – especially as his re-election was all but assured.
