Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou in the House of Representatives debate on the 2018 State Budget

 

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 11^th December 2017, Nicosia

The debate on the state budget is taking place one and a half months before the Presidential Elections. Let’s hope that arguments, documentation and facts will prevail during this discussion. This, of course, doesn’t mean that criticism shouldn’t be made there and where each party believes. That is precisely what we as AKEL will seek to do at least.

Let’s first look at the philosophy that guides the Government’s policies, but of the other candidates or parties as well. The capitalist philosophy of conservative neo-liberalism is dominant globally. This is the philosophy that glorifies easy and quick enrichment, as well as individualism; that puts interests rather than people above everything else. It has led to inequality, all kinds of discrimination, and phenomena of interwoven interests and corruption. It has resulted to a world where the law of the mighty is prevalent and geopolitical competitiveness and the interests of the mighty generate conflicts and wars.

Where have these policies led to?

At the same time as the global economic crisis was breaking out in 2008, the world’s wealth was growing by 20%. While working people and small businesses were being crushed, the world’s wealth rose to a record $ 263 trillion. That’s not AKEL’s imagination, but what the annual special “Credit Suisse” report points out.

Why does 1% of the world’s population own 48% of the world’s wealth?

Why is the share of the poorest 50% of the world’s population just 1% of the world’s wealth?

Why is it that the world’s poorest children are twice as likely to die before the age of five as the children of the rich?

The answer is simple. The problem is structural and lies in the characteristics of the system we live in.

The most worrying of all, and what should ring as an alarm to everyone, is what the report points out on young people up to 30. Namely, that our country’s young generation, the young generation of Europe too, those to whom everyone speaks about in glowing terms, is a wasted generation. The young generation have fewer assets, are less likely to increase their wealth and at the same time have suffered severe blows: mass unemployment, much stricter framework for the approval of house mortgages and a deterioration of income inequality. This is the framework imposed by the European Union’s policies as regards the young generation. It is dogmatic for the Right and centre-right at a European and national level not to question this data. Let’s look at the annual social justice chart of the European Union. This examines six areas:

1. Prevention of poverty
2. Equal rights in education
3. Access to the labour market
4. Social cohesion and non-discrimination
5. Health
6. Justice.

These areas, according to the EU itself, reached their lowest point in 2012-2014.

In these areas, according to the European Union, Cyprus, which the government never tires in claiming every that it is recovering and recording growth, is in 21st position out of the 28 EU member-states, namely seven positions from the bottom.

Every time we point this out, the Anastasiades-DISY government react with their familiar frenzied call: “Its Christofias and AKEL who are to blame for everything”. Christofias and AKEL were blamed in 2013. It is now their turn to be judged.

But I want to clarify something about that specific period. When we said the crisis was global, they were telling us that it was a Cypriot crisis. When we argued that it was a banking crisis, they said the Easter bonus granted by the Christofias government was to blame. Up till then the Vice-President of the European Commission Mr. Olli Rehn, who is certainly not a member of AKEL, said very clearly and in writing that Cyprus’ problem was its oversized banking sector, poor risk management practices and lack of adequate supervision. This was clearly evident, given that despite all the problems, Cyprus was in a much better position than many other Eurozone countries and across the EU with regards fiscal issues, a fact which demonstrated that the problem was elsewhere.

However, back then Anastasiades and DISY party President Neophytou hand-in-hand with DIKO President Mr. Papadopoulos were insisting on the following: that we should cut working people’s wages and social benefits and – God forbid – Thanasis Orphanides governor of the Central Bank should be reappointed. Mr. Neophytou even told us that we have the best bankers in the world; that Thanasis Orphanides speaks and the world is hanging by his words. Mr. Papadopoulos had gone on all the mass media, putting forth 9 reasons to re-appoint Mr. Orphanides.

Together, the Averof-Nicolas duo and Mr. Anastasiades refused to discuss any bills for the taxation of wealth. Together they voted in favour of every attempt to curb the government and state revenues back then. The aim was to promote the idea that there was no other alternative to the Memorandum.

I remind you all of these facts because at some time we have to admit the truth. Above all, however, because we hear every day leading members of the Government and DISY party accusing us of exerting destructive criticism. They are the very people who during the Christofias governance waged destructive criticism and made intolerance a science. They attack AKEL in a nihilistic way, even though our Party had the ethos, patriotism, strength and consistency to act correctly, by supporting the negotiation procedure on the Cyprus problem; by supporting and being at the forefront of the efforts for the approval of the bills on the National Health Scheme and autonomy of state hospitals and for the reform of Local Government not to be buried and much more.

Reviewing the Cyprus economy over the last five years, a clear conclusion can be drawn. Working people have paid and continue to pay the cost of the crisis. Not everyone has contributed according to their capabilities.

The N. Anastasiades  government was in the Presidency of the country during this period. This was a government that preferred to serve the interests of the lenders, rather than to support working people. It preferred to exploit the crisis in order to promote its long-standing policies to the detriment of working people, instead of protecting them. It’s the working people who have primarily suffered the consequences of the crisis. On the contrary, those who didn’t suffer from the haircut on bank deposits and who had been handed preferential information didn’t suffer any consequences. We are talking about those privileged few who benefited from the policies imposed by the Anastasiades-DISY Government. It was the majority of the people, the non-privileged, who paid the price.

The Government states that it is content with its performance. It has managed to implement what it itself considers as its own ideological manifesto. It has cut public spending on growth, dismantled the welfare state, weakened small and medium-sized businesses, brought chaos to the public health system, led low-income pensioners to poverty and driven thousands of young people to seek life abroad. All of these in just in four and a half years.

Today, shortly before the elections, the Anastasiades administration is literally issuing proclamations and blank cheques, asking society to reelect it. But society must know that Nicos Anastasiades has lost all credibility. They should know that, before the elections, he may turn into into Santa Claus, but afterwards he will again continue to pursue the same anti-social, anti-popular policies; that he will continue to serve the privileged few at the expense of the majority of the people.

The Government is boasting about positive GDP growth.

To whose benefit is this growth when in 2012, the total worth of salaries in the economy was € 7.6 billion and today they are not expected to exceed € 7 billion?

When profits used to be € 7.5 billion and today they are expected to reach € 8 billion?

It is therefore clear who benefits from the growth of the Anastasiades government.

The Finance Minister says that in 2013 the government inherited an economy in recession and that today it has delivered an economy recording growth. He is deliberately overlooking the fact that he inherited an economy of € 19.5 billion and is now delivering a smaller economy with fewer incomes, fewer opportunities and fewer prospects.

The government says it hasn’t imposed any taxes. It forgets that it has imposed a universal haircut on social benefits; that it reduced them even more than the lenders were demanding. This was in effect an unjust, across the board social tax loading the middle and low income strata with an economic burden of over € 700 million. The government has shrunk the middle class and made Cyprus top the table in terms of the increase in income inequality.

The government is celebrating that public finances are surplus and that public debt is declining. It is boasting about the surpluses. But it conceals the fact that this surplus comes from the money that it has been depriving society of by driving a large section of it into poverty. It doesn’t understand that a country’s economy isn’t only economic indicators, about numbers and managing accounts. It is instead the ability to offer opportunities for all, to protect fundamental rights such as housing and create conditions of prosperity and security for society as a whole.

They are constantly talking about a so-called “success story”, but reality itself confirms that the N. Anastasiades government has failed.

Unemployment among young people and the long-term unemployed remain at very high levels. That is not what AKEL is saying, but something that the European Commission itself notes. One in two of the unemployed has been unemployed for more than 6 months and one out of three for over 2 years.

The Minister of Labour is claiming that unemployment rates have fallen. But everyone knows that employment is being offered, given that employment has been deregulated. More than 25,000 Cypriots have migrated abroad over the last four years. Others have joined the inactive population either because they can’t, or because they don’t have the courage to register as unemployed. Most of those who work are employed in flexible and precarious jobs and employment.

Cyprus tops the table across the European Union as regards people who are forced to work on fixed-term contracts. 92.9% of people work with such terms of employment because they can’t find a stable job. Salaries remain frozen, especially in the private sector, with the result that debts are burdening family budgets even more.

These conditions have created the phenomenon of the working poor, that is to say people who have a job, but their income isn’t enough to cover their essential basic needs.

Permit me to once more cite the European Commission, which notes in its report on Cyprus:

“Poverty among working people has increased due to the precariousness of the labour market and mainly reflects the deterioration in working conditions during the crisis. This is particularly the case since temporary and part-time employment has increased in recent years and a significant wage adjustment has taken place”.

The Commission Report also points out another conclusion which the Government deliberately ignores:

“Inequality has been rapidly increasing in recent years, and remains a source of concern. The widening inequality has been caused by faster income growth among the richest. The worsening of working conditions during the crisis, especially as involuntary temporary and part-time employment were increasing and wages were adjusted significantly downwards, seem to be the main factors driving increased inequality.”

Approximately a third of the population is on the brink of poverty and social exclusion. The percentage at risk of poverty rose from 15.9% in 2008 to 17.6% in 2012 and 32.9% in 2016. In the Cyprus of the so-called “economic miracle” being propagated poverty doubled in the period 2013-2016.

It is shameful for the country to be in this situation and a great provocation for the Government to be celebrating this disgrace.

We have a State that is daily turning its back on the low-paid, disabled and sick. Even though needs for the provision of public health and care are increasing, the government is completely indifferent.

Cyprus is ranked throughout the whole of the European Union at the bottom of the table with regards spending and expenditure on health, which amounts to just 2.6% of the GDP, while the EU average is 7.2%. The Government is boasting that the General Health Scheme has been approved by the House of Representatives, but without upgrading public hospitals the Scheme can’t be implemented in practice. If the government doesn’t allocate money, if it doesn’t implement the already approved scheme and is satisfied by making raving political comments, it will succeed in what it is being accused of, namely that it is paving the way for the health sector to be at the mercy of private capital. It will make the gradual collapse of the plan for a health plan based on the principles of solidarity and universal access easier.

The government has failed because spending on social protection amounts to just 12% of the Gross Domestic Product, while the average throughout the European Union is 19.2%.

It has failed because spending on the elderly amounts to just 5.8% of GDP, while the EU average stands at 10.3%.

It has failed because Cyprus is also at the bottom of the table with regards spending on people with disabilities, which amounts to just 0.5% of GDP, while the EU average is 2.8%.

The government has failed because it delivers an economy without a vision, an orientation and without any strategic plan. Today, the economy is at the mercy of a government that has forgotten its pre-election pledges and is acting without an overall plan to address the medium to long-term dangers that our productive model has inherited from the past.

The purchase of real estate/immovable property by foreigners wishing to obtain a Cypriot passport through the citizenship-through-investment scheme cannot bring benefits of greater importance, nor are they sustainable as a long-term economic strategy to bring benefits for growth.

The revenues of tourism have surpassed all expectations, but the sector remains fragile in a turbulent volatile area. Our tourist product needs to acquire its own identity and needs to upgrade its quality.

Agriculture and livestock farming are shrinking, increasing our food dependence from abroad.

The export sectors of industry and craft industries, with few exceptions, have illustrated a competitiveness deficit.

The economy continues to be dependent on the outside world, with big trade deficits, despite the increased performance of tourism and the provision of professional services.

The productive model of the Cyprus economy continues to be one-dimensional. Growth, based on the tourist boom and luxury housing sector, is fragmented. It is the result of economic and geopolitical circumstances and not the outcome of a well-designed strategic policy. So other than transitory, this economic growth is also fragile.

The energy sector at a dead-end due to the dismantling of the comprehensive strategy prepared by the Christofias government and the Anastasiades government’s inability to elaborate a new one. Everything that has been done up to date is first and foremost serving communication games without any substantive content. Let us also not forget that the Government has given extensions to companies for drilling that they ought to have already carried out.

Research and innovation remain downgraded, while significant infrastructure projects are required to provide real opportunities for young scientists.

Even in the case of the banks, their role is virtually canceled as they are unable to finance business initiatives and investment actions. Non-performing loans are the main problem of the Cyprus economy and the provision of new loans to support the real economy is limited.

The government, however, remains dogmatically attached to the dead-end policies of the past.

It insists on the privatization of the profitable Semi-governmental organizations, about which it pledged to do otherwise during the 2013 presidential campaign, but after its election to the presidency it broke the pledge it had made with the greatest ease. The fairy tale of privatizations was completely exposed in the case of the port of Limassol. The Minister of Communications said that the State’s expected revenues from its privatization would reach € 2.5 billion over2 5 years. In the end, after the chaos that was provoked by the privatization process, given that phenomena of mismanagement have occurred, given that the private investor has proceeded to impose big increases in port fees, we have now been informed that the State will only receive € 600m over these 25 years. This is the Government’s concept of “efficiency” – namely, the State to lose revenues at the expense of society and to serve the interests of the big business giant companies.

By importing policies, pursuing “magical” solutions and projecting myths, no economy can become effective, productive and profitable. Complacency about our economy’s future, which is trapped in the pursuance of a one-dimensional developmental policy, is underestimating the visible dangers and concealing the structural problems threatening our productive future.

We need a budget that is developmental and focused on growth; a socially sensitive and tidy budget.

We need a productive model that creates preconditions for sustainable growth and combats income inequalities.

We need an economy that offers opportunities for everyone.

We need radical changes in education, local government and in the public service. We need reforms based on comprehensive planning, rather than cosmetic actions aiming at creating political impressions.

We need a government that has a vision for the majority of the population, not a government serving the privileged few.

It is obvious that with the 2018 state budget, the government is only content with restoring economic indicators and not about the qualitative upgrading of the Cyprus economy. The vision is absent from the budget because the Government cannot respond to modern needs. It is stuck in pursuing policies with short-term benefits; policies aiming at securing electoral benefits; policies – pre-election tricks, such as the notorious restoration fund for the depositor victims of the haircut. Two months ago the government wanted to abolish it. Today, it is proposing to prop it up, while for 2018 it has made no provision at all.

It did the same in the case of the Provident Funds. It made other pledges and subsequently broke them. It pledged to the House of Representatives that it would restore 75% of the Funds of the victims of the haircut for all. Eventually it retreated, setting a ceiling of € 100,000. Now it comes back with a ceiling of € 250,000 worried perhaps about losing voters.

Sporadic political decisions, sloppiness and absence of planning just for creating impressions. The people need to know that everything that Mr. Anastasiades is now proclaiming so as to get re-elected will be shifted on to the shoulders of subsequent administrations. If indeed he is re-elected, these pledges will be forgotten the very day after the elections, just as in 2013.

At the same time, the Government proceeded to impose untargeted tax reliefs, which deprive significant revenues from the State and society. As a result, the already growing income inequality in Cyprus is deteriorating.

As far as expenditure is concerned, despite improved fiscal margins, the proposed state budget continues to keep development costs and social benefits at a standstill. The government is announcing a budget surplus of € 0.5 billion, but is unable to deliver significant spending on growth and development for the economy. It is unable to create quality jobs, to provide an adequate web of protection to society. It is depriving € 0.5 billion from households and businesses so that it can receive the “well done” of the lenders.

Anastasiades and the Cyprus problem

The historian of the future will pass his/her judgement on Mr. Anastasiades not only because of the haircut on the people’s bank deposits, but also because he has undermined our people’s hope for a solution of the Cyprus problem. At the critical moment he regressed, marking with his own stand too the deadlock we had at Crans Montana. Turkey has always had the responsibility for the non-solution of the Cyprus problem. Woe, though, if behind this reality we try to hide our boldness, indecision, inconsistency and regressions from time to time.

We point out that Turkey will not retreat easily so we that the solution is agreed. This is correct. The point is that how do we make it difficult for Turkey?

Did we corner Turkey or do we facilitate it by the way that we ourselves acted?

Did we do all we should have done?

I have to recall that as AKEL we had said from the very beginning that we would support the negotiation procedure, provided that Mr. Anastasiades would continue the talks from where they had left off. He didn’t listen us. With the support and encouragement of all the other political parties, he discarded and put aside the Christofias- Talat convergences and sought to conduct negotiations from scratch. After just one year his policy had collapsed, with the UN Secretary-General submitting the worst report to the UN Security Council for the Greek Cypriot side since 2004. The Turkish vessel “Barbaros” was roaming provocatively and undisturbed around our southern shores.

Faced with the impasse that Mr. Anastasiades himself provoked, he was forced to proceed with the conclusion of the Joint Communiqué with Mr. Eroglu in February 2014. Unfortunately, this fallback was accompanied by regressions from the positions that had been recorded by Mr. Christofias.

Mr. Akinci, with his assumption of the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community, declared that he accepted the Christofias-Talat convergences. The President of the Republic was forced to follow suit. Since then, despite regressions by both sides, progress begun to be recorded at the negotiating table. We moved from Mont Peleran 1 and 2 to the Conference in Geneva. We arrived in Crans Montana after difficulties, hesitations, regressions and a long delay. Months earlier we had called on the President to discuss, informally, the remaining core issues; to explore up to what point was the Turkish side ready to go, and whether there was room for an understanding. Unfortunately he once more didn’t listen to us. Instead, he got trapped in his petty-party calculations, tangled up with the Enosis referendum issue and the policy of “protaxis” (Note: the policy of setting “preconditions” that predetermine the results of negotiations) the proposal and ended up causing severe damage to the negotiation procedure.

Before the departure to Crans Montana, at the meeting of the National Council, we had pointed out to Mr. Anastasiades the importance of the subsequent meeting. We stressed that we had to go there focused on the goal of the solution; that we had to be prepared sufficiently and in depth to deal with the difficulties that would arise from the Turkish stand. Knowing this, we should have demonstrated more determination – not by retreating on positions of principles, but by undertaking initiatives that would either force Turkey to respond or leave it exposed.

At this point, I want to criticize the lies that the Government and other opposition parties are trying to cultivate. AKEL has never called on Mr. Anastasiades to make further concessions. On the contrary, we accuse him because, while he had the opportunity either for the guarantees to be abolished from day one, either to expose Turkey, he didn’t succeed in doing either of the two.

Ultimately, Crans Montana ended in a deadlock. Unfortunately, the UN Secretary-General in his report talked about a historic opportunity missed for a solution because of a lack of political will on the part of Mr. Anastasiades as well, and expressed his positive opinion about Turkey’s role.

Unfortunately today the danger for the finalization of partition is more visible than ever. The clock of the Cyprus problem is counting backwards. The Turkish side’s announcements are consolidating further the fait accompli, while the danger of the assimilation of the Turkish Cypriot community is growing. All this will make it harder for the next attempt aiming at a solution. If that effort fails too, we will be heading straight to partition. Regrettably, the time is also ending bearing in mind the processes that are ongoing in the Turkish Cypriot community.

That is why the next President of the Republic must want and be able to take serious and consistent steps in the talks. He must be someone both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can trust to sincerely desire the reunification of our country and people.

Mr. Anastasiades, unfortunately for the country, failed to convince them. At the critical moment he showed inconsistency and indecision. He put the presidential chair over and above the future generations.

Unprecedented contempt shown towards institutions and the cases of interwoven interests, corruption, and cronyism

Mr. Anastasiades also caused disappointment on the issues related to institutions, transparency and meritocracy. In many cases, citizens were astonished at the unprecedented contempt shown for institutions and the cases of interwoven interests, corruption, and cronyism that were patently obvious.

It was the President’s decision to testify as a witness at the trial of his distinguished friend, the then Assistant Attorney General. That is, one of those ”excellent of the excellent” appointed by the President who was accused and convicted of offering material benefits, hush money, bribery, corruption, abuse of power and conspiracy. For the sake of the same person he clashed with the Attorney General with the latter stating “Shame”.

On the issue of the outflows of deposits it was revealed that the President’s close family circle transferred 21 million Euros abroad, while the bank deposits of thousands of other people were the subject of the haircut. Even worse, it was later revealed that the President of the Republic knew about the haircut as of March 4^th 2013.

There is also the revelation that lawyers from his office were going to meetings at the Presidential Palace to discuss the selling off of Cyprus Airways by giving false names. This was to prevent the President of the Republic from negotiating the sale of public property with the clients of his law firm.

It was the revelation that from all the destinations in Cyprus the unknown investor remarkably chose to invest in the “famous resort” of Pera Pedi village where many plots of land belong to the presidential family.

It was the revelation for the approval of a deviation of millions of Euros made to a big businessman despite the opposition of the Town Planning Council.

It was the leak of classified documents to specific people by the President of the Republic himself.

Internal governance – dismal record

As for the issues regarding to meritocracy, what can one recall first?

That Mr. Erotokritou was appointed Assistant Attorney General, just because he assisted Mr. Anastasiades’ 2013 presidential election campaign?

That one member of the Political Bureau of governing DISY party was out of nowhere appointed to the European Bank in Strasbourg or the other with a posting to Brussels?

That another member of the DISY Political Bureau has been appointed head of the Government’s Press and Information Office?

These and many other examples portray the image of the Anastasiades-DISY Government, namely as a government serving the interests of the privileged few, while providing little for the many. Interwoven interests, corruption, unreliability, and ineffectiveness.

Mr. Anastasiades is again contesting the Presidency of the Republic with a dismal record. With his inconsistent policy on the Cyprus problem, regressions and contradictions recorded that have led the procedure of the talks to adventures. With the heavy mark of his government’s policies in the real economy. Salaries of € 500 salaries, the humiliation of the Minimum Guaranteed Income, the savage cuts in the provisions for the public health and education system.

Papadopoulos is nothing but a variation of Anastasiades’ candidacy

There is, therefore, a pressing need for a real deliverance from this government, not replacing it with another version. Everyone knows that Mr. Papadopoulos’ candidacy is nothing but a variation of Mr. Anastasiades’ candidacy.

Everyone remembers that hand-to-hand with DISY President Mr. Neophytou they were both defending the “best bankers in the world” and calling for more sacrifices to be made by working people.

Everyone remembers that Mr. Papadopoulos voted with Mr. Neophytou in favour of crucial bills on insolvency, foreclosures, privatizations and many other issues.

Together they abolished all the reforms made by the previous government in education, local government and health. Together they formed an alliance so that all these issues that concern the majority of the people are still pending.

On the so-called “new strategy” on the Cyprus problem

Everyone understands that the so-called “new strategy” on the Cyprus problem which Mr. Papadopoulos is propagating is nothing but a dangerous list of old and all too often repeated slogans.

Mr. Papadopoulos is intensely promoting this “New Strategy”, but he doesn’t tell us the essence:

What is his strategic goal?

Does he accept or reject Bi-communal, Bi-zonal Federation?

He doesn’t say so for a very simple reason. Because most of the forces who support his candidacy not only don’t accept Bi-communal, Bi-zonal Federation, but also consider it the worst form of partition. Some of them even attribute him that he shares this position. It is obvious that this alliance backing his presidential candidacy is about winning presidential power and not about focused on Cyprus and the future generations.

Mr. Papadopoulos constantly reiterates that he wants to explicitly express the position for a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus in the first article of the agreement in the event of a solution. It is also our position that the solution should provide for the continuity of the Republic of Cyprus. How is this to be achieved? Internationally-renowned experts world declare this will happen if the solution provides for the continued membership of International Organizations and if the Treaties signed by the Republic of Cyprus will continue to apply. We have secured both. Furthermore, we have succeeded in secession or a union with another state being prohibited. That’s how the continuity of the Republic of Cyprus is ensured and not by sloganeering that will only succeed in undermining the negotiation procedure. It would be interesting if N. Papadopoulos were to tell us as to why the late Tassos Papadopoulos didn’t assert this explicit reference in the agreement. Do they perhaps believe that he too was not assertive enough?

Slogans don’t cost anything during the pre-election campaign, but woe if we seek to cash in on it by seeking exchanges. If this is attempted then we will suffer severe consequences. This must be borne in mind by Mr. Papadopoulos before he reiterates the untimely position for the “withdrawal of troops before the agreement for a solution begins to come into force”.

A nice-sounding slogan, which will cost dearly. It is unfeasible in practice and unfortunately it will not permit the achievement of an agreement. It will not enable us to demand at the negotiating table the immediate abolition of the guarantees and intervention rights; to assert the withdrawal of the occupation army, as advocated by the UN, the EU, Britain, Greece and the Greek Cypriot side at the recent Crans Montana conference.

As for the position on the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with Turkey before the solution, it will go down in history as the “pledge” made by Mr. Nicholas Papadopoulos. It is such an unrealistic position. States that have recognized each other have been negotiating for decades without reaching an agreement on the issue. Turkey doesn’t even recognize us. How will it negotiate with us for the EEZ before the solution? We will force Turkey to suffer a cost, they say. And this is being said when the US and the European Union themselves haven’t succeeded in doing so. Perhaps in the end we may be – or think we can become – the superpower of the world.

And on a light-hearted note: Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos’ strategy provides for the removal of passports from propagandists of partition. Do I understand that if he is elected, he will immediately take away the Archbishop of Cyprus’ passport?

With regard to Mr. Papadopoulos’ criticism of the Christofias convergences, I will confine myself to replying only to the most often used and extreme criticism: his election campaign team denounces on every occasion that with the convergence registered on the four freedoms, 80 million Turks will be able to come to Cyprus. If we take into account that there was a 4-to-1 population ratio agreement between Christofias and Talat, that is, for every 4 Greeks 1 Turk, then for what Mr. Papadopoulos is threatening another 32 Greeks will be required. That is, Greece to have a population of 320 million and everyone to decide to move to Cyprus.

The worst of all is that none of the three candidates, neither Mr. Anastasiades, Mr. Papadopoulos, nor Mr. Lillikas can put forth convincing proposals for the future of the country. None of the three candidates can represent the interests of citizens, especially young people who want Cyprus to move forward; who want the next President free from the shackles of conservatism; who want him ready to proceed to radical changes and reforms; ready to make a progressive mark and not to be afraid to reply to the backward views of the Archbishop, to the voices of the past that prefer partition, to the policies that drive us back years.

The next President

The next President must want and be able to drive developments forward; to want, be able, and know how to solve the Cyprus problem; to have in his mind, in his conscience, that we are one homeland and one people.

That our people on both sides of the barbed wire of division is suffering from the same causes.

That a just, viable and viable solution to the Cyprus problem is the solution that we have agreed with the international and Turkish Cypriot communities since 1977 and which we have repeatedly reaffirmed ourselves in the years that followed.

That we are struggling for a bicommunal, bizonal federal solution with political equality, as described in the United Nations Resolutions.

A solution leading to a united state, a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus, with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality, free from foreign armies, guarantee and intervention rights.

A clear plan and concrete proposals on the Cyprus problem

The only candidate that can guarantee this is Stavros Malas. Stavros has already taken a clear and honest stand, without evading issues and engaging in sloganeering, but is putting forth a clear plan:

• An immediate meeting with Mr. Akinci in order to prepare talks in a concrete and comprehensive manner.
• Joint Appeal to the UN Secretary-General to continue the procedure.
• Confirmation of the Cypriot ownership of the procedure and unconditional acceptance of the UN Secretary General’s position that the negotiation must continue from where it had left off in Crans Montana.
• Discussion of the remaining internal issues in an interconnected way.

This is the strategy that gives hope for our liberation from the nightmare of partition.

This is the strategy that opens the door for the future of Cyprus.

The Cyprus economy and concrete proposals

Stavros Malas can also succeed in addressing the challenges on the economy as well because he does not kid himself; because he is a person who has lived and knows what everyday life means, in the work; because he is part of our country’s creative forces; because is he one of us; because he knows and shares the needs and expectations of the young generation. That is why he is presenting well-substantiated, alternative and progressive proposals for Cyprus to move forward, such as:

– Investment in Research, Science, Knowledge and Innovation with € 80 million to create 6,000 new quality jobs.

– Establishment of a special tax framework for companies and individuals who are active in the countryside.

– The construction of new residential housing units for young refugee families and the elaboration of a plan to subsidize the cost of care for infants, toddlers, primary school children.

The provision of special tax incentives to specialized developments in new areas, such as for example:

• Medical tourism
• High technology companies and financial penetration (special IT)
• Companies to purchase and utilize intellectual rights

The legislative enforcement of Minimum Obligatory Conditions of Terms of Employment (minimum salary for newly hired workers, 13th month salary payment, overtime allowance, mandatory holidays) for those workers not covered by collective agreements.

The implementation of an overall policy on very big commercial developments (for example, the Mall commercial stores) so that unfair competition with small and medium-sized enterprises isn’t promoted.

The promotion of social cooperatives through the funding and financing of the establishment of social enterprises by Local Authorities, Non-Governmental Organizations and Cooperatives.

The extension in the period of the provision of unemployment benefit and the creation of a special card for unemployed young people with various benefits.

Incentives for owners of agricultural plots to lease to the state in order to create single cooperative crops to increase the production of specific products of additional commercial value.

The creation of community parks of renewable energy sources, which will enable the citizens of a region or community to participate in the development of RES projects in their area.

The full separation of the state from the Church, regulation and transparency in the Church’s business relationship with the state.

Reinstatement of the financial support (small check) for all low-income pensioners and improvement of the criteria for granting child and single parent allowances and annual readjustment based on the cost of living index.

Strengthening through the provision of the necessary human resources to existing clinics and the staffing of the public health system with human resources, provision of the required logistical infrastructures so that it is able to meet citizen’s needs.

The vision for tomorrow

These and many other proposals make up the vision for the tomorrow that rallies us around the candidacy of Stavros Malas.

This is the vision that will become the future of a better Cyprus.

Neither does this year’s budget meet the needs of the economy and society. It is an anti-growth budget devoid of social content; a budget suiting the policy measures implemented by the N. Anastasiades government over the last five years.

It is a budget without vision and prospects, one that perpetuates income inequality and economic uncertainty.

For all these reasons, AKEL will vote against the 2018 budget.