PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday named two high-flying women and two relatively young academics as caretaker ministers to replace the four AKEL appointees that resigned from the government on Wednesday.
The four ministers, all non-political appointees, will serve out the terms of office of their former predecessors until the presidential elections in February.
Papadopoulos appointed career diplomat Erato Kozakou Markoullis as Foreign Minister, Maria Malaktou Papalli, a state legal counsel, as Communications and Works Minister, and academics Costas Kadis and Christos Patsalisdes as Health and Interior ministers.
They will be sworn in on Monday and will replace Giorgos Lillikas, Harris Thrassou, Charis Charalambous and Neoclis Sylikiotis, who resigned when AKEL decided to back its own party leader Demetris Christofias to run against Papadopoulos.
This is the first time President Papadopoulos has appointed women to the Cabinet since Dina Akkelidou, an AKEL Health Minister, was forced to resign late in late 2004.
When Papadopoulos carried out his big reshuffle a year ago, six new ministers were appointed, none of them women, but with elections on the way, cynics might see the sudden appointment of, not only one but two as an obvious campaign ploy.
Papadopoulos reportedly rejected names submitted to him by remaining coalition partners DIKO and EDEK to opt for more personal choices.
Speaking last night, he confirmed the appointees had not been chosen from party lists.
“The only message I want to send is – and the chairman of EDEK is here also and to him I say – that I have not selected from lists. I spoke with my collaborators about various names of my choosing,” said Papadopoulos
Papadopoulos then launched into an attack on the media for saying he had chosen name from a list.
“I am astonished, and I hope there is somebody here from CyBC so you can accept that your predictions and guesses were unfounded. You spoke of stabbings and conflicts. None of this is true. You should simply and quietly say ‘We were wrong’.”
All four new appointees told CyBC last night that they were honoured that Papadopoulos had asked them to step into the job and that they would do their best to serve the government and the people.
“I want to express my gratitude to President Tassos Papadopoulos for the confidence he has shown in me, and I pledge to make every effort in this sometimes difficult work,” said Kozakou Markoullis.
The political parties had little to say. DIKO leader Marios Karoyian, speaking from Limassol, told CyBC he was satisfied with the choices made by the President and believed they would produce good results.
Karoyian highlighted the appointment of two women and the fact that the two male appointees were relatively young.
Patsalides, a law lecturer, is 33 and Kadis, an environmental expert and academic is 41.
EDEK spokesman Marinos Sizopoulos said: ‘It’s early to make a judgement. Give it some time to see their performance.”
But opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades was not impressed: “We are talking about people who are not politicians and have no experience.”
He excluded Kozakou Markoullis from the remark, as she has been heading up the Cyprus problem desk at the Foreign Ministry. “The rest are unknowns,” he said.
Since coming to power in March 2003, the Papadopoulos cabinet has seen more than a few changes. In all, various ministerial postings have been up for grabs some 30 times. The Defence Ministry alone changed hands four times in just over a year. Listing all the movers and shakers since 2003, Politis yesterday said Papadopoulos had promised “the government of change” and that is what he had achieved.
