There have been many calls from several quarters for the resignations of those responsible for the perceived failure of last week’s firefighting operations. These calls did not always focus on any individual specifically but were based on the argument that someone needed to take political responsibility for the weaknesses, delays and omissions in the firefighting operations. Two people were burned alive in their car trying to flee the fires on Wednesday and someone should be made to pay for this, went the argument of the government’s critics.

Meanwhile calls for the sacking of Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis were based on an insensitive comment he made, describing the death of the elderly couple as an “unfortunate incident” rather than anything he had done. The newspaper columnist who called for his immediate sacking by the president was ignored, Hartsiotis eventually issuing a groveling apology, which saved his job, if it were ever in danger. Otherwise, calls for resignations were general.

As it is unheard of for a civil servant to voluntarily step down and impossible for the president to sack him – only the public service commission has the power to do this once an investigation proves corruption or theft – if anyone was to take responsibility for the unsatisfactory firefighting operation it had to be a minister, but President Nikos Christodoulides seemed unwilling to axe a minister and ease the pressure on his government.

In his address to the people on Sunday night, Christodoulides apologised “on behalf of the state” because “at a critical moment like this we did not respond as we should have done.” He also spoke of the obligation to “identify all the gaps and omissions,” but made it quite clear that nobody was to blame about these gaps and omissions and the inadequate response of the authorities. His address was an exercise in not taking any responsibility for the fiasco.

Instead, he ordered each department involved in some way with the firefighting to submit full reports evaluating their role and involvement in the management of the fires. All these reports would be made public for the sake of transparency, he said. The idea that the president did not know what had gone wrong and had to wait until the submission of the departmental reports on Friday to form an opinion was a blatant diversionary tactic. If nobody knew who was responsible for the gaps and omissions, how could Christodoulides ask any minister to take responsibility?

This is just obfuscation, because as everyone apart from the president knows, a politician takes responsibility for the blunders of the departments under his authority, even if s/he had nothing to do with the decisions. In the case of the poor response to last week’s fire, the president should look no further than Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou, who allowed her ministry permanent secretary to go to go on a trip to Australia at height of the fire season despite having the role of coordinator for firefighting operations. The lack of organisation and coordination can only be attributed to her ministry, which had the main responsibility for it.

Why has she not been axed by the president, if only to show that for his government, accountability matters?