Amid calls for the resignations of the justice and agriculture ministers, the government on Monday continued dodging questions as to whether any senior officials would or should quit over last week’s destructive fires.

Pressed again and again on CyBC radio on Monday, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis refused to be drawn on whether the president is considering asking for the resignations of Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis and Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou.

The spokesman was also asked about public remarks made by the two ministers concerning the fires – remarks which came across as either insensitive or tone-deaf to demands for accountability.

Hartsiotis last week incongruously spoke of “absolutely no loss of life” – despite the deaths of two people, burnt alive in their car. He also gave the government “top marks” in its handling of the fire.

Panayiotou commented that the inferno was unprecedented and that “the only way we might have prevented the fire, would be for it not to have broken out.”

As justice minister, Hartsiotis is the political supervisor of the fire department and the police. Panayiotou, as agriculture minister, is the political supervisor of the forestry department – responsible for fires occurring in rural and forest areas.

Despite being asked repeatedly, the government spokesman said he did not know if President Nikos Christodoulides has asked any minister to resign, or if a minister has tendered his or her resignation.

On the two ministers’ remarks, and whether they were inappropriate, Letymbiotis said only that “these matters will be evaluated at the right time”.

It was also put to Letymbiotis that the two ministers in question were nowhere to be seen during the president’s televised address on Sunday evening, when Christodoulides offered the public an apology on behalf of the state.

Although calls for accountability have been coming thick and fast, the majority of the political parties have not specified whom they’d like to see step down.

Akel did get specific, demanding the resignations of Hartsiotis and Panayiotou at a minimum.

Likewise the Alma political movement – headed u by former auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides – has called for the dismissal of the two ministers.

In a statement, Alma also demanded a public inquiry – but one mandated by parliament rather than by the attorney-general. And it suggested that the interior minister – responsible for Civil Defence – could be accountable as well.

Alma made much of the agriculture ministry’s permanent secretary, Andreas Gregoriou, who reportedly was absent abroad during the fires raging last week in Limassol district.

This is because the permanent secretary is designated as the overall coordinator for fire response. According to Alma, it’s far from clear if, in Gregoriou’s absence, someone else stepped in his shoes.

The government spokesman asserted that “the mechanisms are in place so that the state apparatus can continue functioning and not rely on a single person”.

He said that overall operational coordination had been assigned to fire chief Nikos Longinos.

Letymbiotis reiterated that all the departments involved in the firefighting efforts would separately submit their reports.

“What is being examined is the way in which the various agencies operated, mainly regarding the protection of human life and evacuations.”