Anastasiades government glaring silence on Minister’s ELAM offices visit and statements

Statements by Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 30 March 2018, Nicosia

Yesterday, denouncing the meeting the Minister of Education had at ELAM’s central offices and his subsequent statements, AKEL had predicted that the Anastasiades-DISY government would keep silent.

Our prediction was correct. The silence of the President of the Republic and the government is glaring. The same manifest silence is also true of all the political parties with the exception of AKEL, who alone, together with civil society, is waging the struggle against neo-fascism, racism, nationalism and intolerance.

We recall that the EU – even through its contradictions – is ringing the alarm about the growth of the extreme right and neo-fascism and calls for mobilization against them. In the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and other European institutions no one opens a dialogue with the extreme-Right.

In Cyprus, however, the President of the Republic and the government evidently have a different opinion. They aren’t bothered by the visit of the Minister of Education to the central offices of the branch of the Greek “Golden Dawn” party in Cyprus, nor by the statements he subsequently make. They diligently avoid expressing an opinion by letting the whole subject pass by. But the questions remains and an answer needs to be given: Does the Minister of Education and the Government share the same values ​​and principles with the Branch of the “Golden Dawn” in Cyprus?