AKEL will focus on the Cyprus problem, ending wars, labour issues and the 2024 elections

Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL S.Stefanou

4 January 2024, Cyprus News Agency

AKEL is focusing on the Cyprus problem, the termination of wars around the world, with special reference to the Gaza Strip, labour issues and the 2024 elections for local authorities and the European Parliament, according to what the Party’s General Secretary, Stefanos Stefanou, said today at the custom of cutting the traditional Cypriot annual cake to celebrate the passing of the New Year, in the presence of party cadres, MP’s, and members of the European Parliament.

In his greeting, Stefanos Stefanou said that the effort to resume the talks on the Cyprus problem will continue, aiming at ensuring permanent peace in Cyprus, which, he said, will be come with the achievement of a solution on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation, with political equality, as described in the UN resolutions.

“This is the basis of the solution we have agreed with the Turkish Cypriots since 1977, this is the basis of the solution we have reaffirmed many times since then, this is the basis of the solution adopted in a series of resolutions approved by the UN and numerous other organizations and intergovernmental associations, such as the EU,” S.Stefanou pointed out. He added that together with efforts at the level of negotiations, “relations forging cooperation, joint efforts and struggle with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots will be strengthened, developing further the policy of rapprochement of the two communities”.

Aiming at providing relief to working people, who are affected by price increases and by “policies that are usually shoddy and unfair for the majority of people”, as S.Stefanou said, AKEL’s efforts will focus on supporting these people “first and foremost by the state, because that is its responsibility”. “We will continue to struggle, both inside and outside parliament, so that relief measures are promoted in society,” he added.

The General Secretary of AKEL also spoke of the need for safeguarding peace and promoting cooperation between states and peoples, for an end to ongoing wars that are continuing in various parts across the world.

“In the Gaza Strip, a crime is being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” he said, stressing that AKEL is not indifferent and will continue to mobilise the people “to put and end to Israel’s war against the Palestinian people” and subsequently “through peaceful processes to arrive at a solution based on the relevant UN resolutions, to vindicate the decades-long struggle of the Palestinian people, to establish a State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

“We hope that other wars and conflicts will end and that politics and diplomacy will take action in order to achieve peaceful solutions, as for example in the war that has been going on for two years in Ukraine, but also in other hotbeds of tension, wars and conflicts,” the General Secretary of AKEL added.

Referring to the upcoming local government and European Parliament elections, Stefanos Stefanou said that “the objective is clear: we want AKEL’s presence in both the local government and the European Parliament to continue to be strong”, so that AKEL has the ability “to intervene with its pro-people policies, which benefit society, workers and Cyprus”.

“In 2024 too, AKEL will continue to look to the future, to society, to the common people, to workers, especially to young people, whom we all talk about, but very little is being done for them, while much needs to be done to realise their dreams, their expectations from life, in admittedly difficult conditions,” he concluded.