Koushos to be new Labour Minister

President Nicos Anastasiades has chosen former government spokesperson and close associate Kyriacos Koushos to lead the Labour Ministry following the untimely death of Zeta Emilianidou earlier this month.

Koushos, who was serving as the president’s undersecretary, will be succeeded by the Director of the President’s Office, Petros Demetriou, said government spokesperson Marios Pelekanos in a written statement on Monday.

President Anastasiades, exercising the powers provided by the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, is also appointing Pantelis Pantelides, who serves as the head of the Secretariat of the Presidency, as the new Director of his office.

Those appointed will be sworn in at a ceremony scheduled for 27 June.

Koushos, a lawyer by profession, was born in Famagusta in 1952 and studied Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

He has practised Law since 1977and is a Senior Associate at the Law Office of Koushos and Korfiotis.

He has served as government spokesperson and deputy minister to President Anastasiades and had previously turned down other ministerial offers.

Koushos is a trusted colleague of the president and was seen as the best ‘short-term fix’ ahead of elections next February.

He replaces Zeta Emilianidou, who died on 6 June in hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm rupture.

Emilianidou, 67, died in Athens after being treated in an induced coma following surgery for a rupture of a cerebral aneurism she suffered on 15 May.

She was a popular minister for nearly ten years and only one of three women in the government.