The big scandals reveal the huge moral deficit of the government and DISY

Excerpts from the speech of the General Secretary of AKEL S.Stefanou:

 

9 November 2022, ‘Dialogos’ portal

The big scandals reveal the huge moral deficit which this government and the ruling DISY party had, noted the General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, in his speech on Wednesday evening, stressing that this is the first and principal reason why change is needed in Cyprus. What is needed first of all is honesty and ethics in the Presidency and governance of the country, S.Stefanou, pointed out who was speaking at a district political rally organised by AKEL Larnaca district organisation at the PEO trade union building.

The General Secretary of AKEL said that “Cyprus is at a crucial crossroads and facing many dangerous deadlocks. The first major deadlock is the disgrace that Cyprus has suffered for many years across Europe and internationally”.

Furthermore, S.Stefanou noted that “we have had and still have the enormous problem that has given Cyprus a bad name, called the ‘golden’ passports scheme. The full responsibility lies with the government of the ruling Democratic Rally party”.

This bad name, he said, “has come to the fore again today because of the wiretapping and surveillance scandal. In this surveillance scandal, it is obvious that the government and the ruling party, the Democratic Rally, play a leading role. The government and DISY must provide answers as this new scandal that is defaming Cyprus to such an extent that the European Parliament has set up a special committee of inquiry to investigate the whole matter.”

Unfortunately, S.Stefanou said, “The government and DISY are burying their heads in the sand and looking for excuses on this issue as too.”

The General Secretary of AKEL noted that the second thing that the Government of the country needs is social sensitivity in order to address the multiple problems citizens and society are confronted with primarily because of the high cost of living and price hikes. The government and DISY, he said, are not only indifferent, but are also standing against the proposals and laws passed by the opposition in the House of Representatives.

Stefanos Stefanou added that AKEL had tabled two draft bills and was waiting for the government to discuss with it to formulate a draft bill on the taxation of excess profits. Unfortunately, he said, the government has not done this and that is precisely why the main opposition party, AKEL, is going to parliament with a proposal not just to tax super profits, but to give the money from these taxes back to society through the implementation of specific schemes. “Social sensitivity has never been a characteristic feature of the government and DISY,” he said.

The General Secretary of AKEL also said the third thing the country needs is credibility. “It is no coincidence that during DISY’s governance that the verb “I pledge to…” became the shortest joke in the Republic of Cyprus. Citizens need to know and must demand to know what everyone will actually do when elected and not for candidates to promise everything under the sun and eventually these pledges will turn out to be just big empty talk that are meaningless as the Democratic Rally party has been doing for ten consecutive years.”

The General Secretary of AKEL argued that, “We need to have an honest reliable, honest and responsible person at the helm of the country. Andreas Mavroyiannis has all these virtues whose candidacy seems to have and gathers a great momentum that will put him in the second round. A. Mavroyiannis will seek victory in the elections with many possibilities not just to celebrate, but to open up a new promising page for the country and people who need it so much”.