Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou at the meeting organized against the privatization of Cooperatives outside the Presidential Palace
AKEL CC. Press Office, 23rd March 2018, Nicosia
We are here today to raise our voices against the selling off of Cooperatives. The Cooperatives represent an enduring gain of the Cypriot people which even today, despite the immense changes that have taken place, continues to be the property of all Cypriots.
Through its decisions, the Government is finalizing its machinations to sell off the Co-Ops. It is realizing in practice what it had set as a target from the very beginning, but hid its real intentions behind various promises.
In October 2013, during the first recapitalization of the Co-ops by the State, the Anastasiades-DISY government pledged from the podium of the House of Representatives to return Co-operatives to their owners. Similar pledges were also made in 2016.
Today, the government is deliberately selling off Co-operatives. With the greatest of ease it has broken its own pledges. Through its decisions and actions, it decided to change their character and transformed the Cyprus Co-operative Bank into yet another commercial bank. At the same time, the Minister says Co-ops have fulfilled all the targets set by the Central Bank. The question is why are they then proceeding to these actions? They tell us that this is what the auditors are asking for. We ask them again. What do the auditors base this assertion on? What are their findings? Has the government’s management of Co-ops failed? If not, where is the knowledge, capabilities and the friends on a European level, that they were going to make use of for the benefit of Cyprus and the Cypriot people? These were nothing but big empty words, and false promises.
While the Government was scheming to sell-off Co-ops it was showering the people with promises and pledges.
Why didn’t they dare say to the people during the pre-election campaign that they want to privatize Co-ops?
Why weren’t they admitting that they disagree ideologically and politically with the cooperative principles, but were just stating that everything is fine?
The Anastasiades-DISY Government has assumed the management of Co-ops for the past five years. The result of this management is leading to the selling off of one of the Cypriot people’s greatest gains. No matter how many mistakes may have been made the Government must correct them, instead of dismantling this enormous structure. At the same time, the Minister of Finance states with lots of arrogance that they won’t allow a bank to barely survive. I will remind him of the self-evident: namely that when the “Laiki Bank” was being destroyed it was administered by private bankers, “the best bankers in the world” according to DISY and was under the supervision of Mr. Thanassis Orphanides, the former Governor of the Central Bank, who protected these very same bankers. The Co-ops have been managed for five years and are being destroyed today by the Anastasiades-DISY Government.
The Anastasiades-DISY government, as the main shareholder of the Cyprus Co-operative Bank, has sole responsibility towards society for the decisions and actions that have taken place and which lead to the sale and the loading of the damage onto taxpayer’s shoulders. All these years, they haven’t taken into consideration our disagreements and positions.
Today we have gathered here to resist their machinations; to urge them even at this stage to fulfill their pledges; to respect the people who have been tricked and subsequently deceived by them; to respect the pioneers of the cooperative movement who, through their labor, sacrifices and hardships, built brick-by-brick the Co-operative movement; to respect its ideas and values.
