Cyprus' leader to reshuffle cabinet after finance minister quits

PanARMENIAN.Net - Cyprus' president will reshuffle his cabinet after his finance minister resigned for health reasons, a government spokesman said Friday, March 16, AP reported.

Stefanos Stefanou said that Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias insisted on his resignation, despite President Dimitris Christofias' plea to remain at his post.

Stefanou said the cabinet's new composition will be announced March 19. Media reported that Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou is likely to be replaced by Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis who will cede his post to former Nicosia mayor Eleni Mavrou. Kazamias, a 61 year-old German-educated economist, and member of the ruling, communist-rooted AKEL party, suffered a leg infection earlier this year.

He was appointed last August in the wake of a political and economic crisis spawned by the fatal detonation of seized Iranian munitions at a naval base that wrecked the island's largest power station.

But Kazamias earned the respect of even opposition politicians who dominate the Cypriot parliament for helping to shore up public finances as the financial turmoil in neighboring Greece affected the Cypriot economy and raised fears the euro member would also need an EU bailout.

He also brokered an end to a longstanding tax dispute between the government and the island's wealthy Orthodox Christian church, as well as helping to attract foreign investor interest.

Kazamias has been highly critical of credit ratings agencies over their repeated downgrades of the country, mainly due to its banks' significant exposure to Greek debt.