AKEL on Anastasiades’ announcement to run for president
Statement by Christos Christofides, AKEL Political Bureau member
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 14th October 2017, Nicosia
Nicos Anastasiades is conducting a pre-election campaign by in fact sacrificing everything for the sake of pre-election considerations. Today’s official announcement of the Anastasiades candidacy doesn’t change anything. It is merely the official confirmation of what all the people knew all along.
Nicos Anastasiades has failed. He has failed on all the crucial issues affecting our country and people.
– On the Cyprus problem we are just half a step away from final partition. The Cyprus problem is in a deadlock and Turkey is acting uncontrollably and unhindered. Turkey is consolidating the occupation and partition without coming under any criticism from the international community.
Nicos Anastasiades is the President of U-turns and retractions. He is constantly retracting between “hardline” nationalist policies and choices on the margin of our side’s position on security issues. Our side’s credibility has been damaged internationally. Nicos Anastasiades made a bad negotiation. He failed to effectively tackle Turkey.
Anastasiades delivers a Cyprus much nearer to partition, with the occupation more entrenched and the Cyprus problem in tragic deadlocks.
– The Anastasiades government is the government that has served and benefited the few and the privileged and has hurt the majority who are in need. Anastasiades is the president of the “haircut” on bank deposits and the flight of capital abroad. Anastasiades is the president who turned the “I pledge to…” into a joke. He is the president who has driven thousands of young people to emigrate. The Anastasiades government has dismantled hospitals and the Health sector. It has driven Education back to the past. It has dismantled the welfare state and curbed support towards those most in need. Anastasiades delivers a society with greater inequalities and in a much worse situation.
– Anastasiades is the president of the “most excellent of the excellent” appointees; the president of nepotism and cronyism. Anastasiades is the President of arbitrariness and conflicts with independent institutions. Whoever does not agree with them comes under fierce attacks. It is the government that has tried to sell out whatever state and social property exists. Anastasiades delivers an institutional crisis and the credibility to the institution of the President devastated.
Nikos Anastasiades cannot offer any perspective whatsoever to the country. They are provoking, instead of solving problems. Nicos Anastasiades and his government must go. The country needs real change and not another version of the current government. The only real change for the country today is the candidacy of Stavros Malas.
