AKEL comments on the President’s interview
Statements by Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 5th September 2016, Nicosia
On the implementation of the Program:
The list of the President’s pre-election pledges that haven’t been fulfilled is long
In his interview today to a daily newspaper, the President of the Republic claimed that so far 80% of his electoral program has been implemented.
In truth, what electoral program is the President talking about? Is it the one which had given the pledge that he will never accept a haircut on bank deposits? Or the one that that stated that he will not accept any privatization of the profitable Semi-governmental organizations? Or is it the electoral programme that contained two ready transnational loans that he will use to gain time in the negotiation of the Memorandum with the Troika? Or that he will renegotiate the terms of the Memorandum to the benefit of working people? Or is it the electoral programme that he would convince the Eurozone countries to temporarily defer the payment of installments by the unemployed and all those who have no income? Or that the banks will lengthen the period of the repayment of loans? Or that 1% of the annual budget will be available for youth policies?
This list of the President’s election pledges that have not been implemented is long. That is the reason why his election pledges ended up a witty remark and a joke.
The President made other pledges during the pre-election campaign and is implementing other pledges after the elections. His election program was different when he was making all kinds of promises to suit everyone interests and completely different to his post-election agenda whose cost is being paid by the ordinary citizen.
On favouritism and cronyism:
The government isn’t interested in meritocracy
The claim made by the President of the Republic that supposedly there hasn’t been any posting or secondment of a person sympathetic to the government can’t be taken even as a bad joke.
It is clear that the scandalous posting of the teacher and member of the Political Bureau of DISY to the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU in Brussels isn’t a problem for the President. As the fiasco of the appointment of supposedly “excellent of the excellent people” in various posts of the wider public service also doesn’t constitute a problem.
For the President of the Republic the various accusations that from time AKEL has made about the Government’s decisions are not worth a mention; decisions that are aiming at cronyism and a “jobs for the boys” system which is why he states in his interview published today that supposedly “there hasn’t been any criticism about cases concerning cronyism.”
This attitude of the President of the Republic proves that the government and ruling forces do not care about meritocracy. They are only interested in serving their petty party and petty political interests by using the wider public service as a tool.
