AKEL ON THE AGREEMENT REACHED BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TROIKA FOR A NEW MEMORANDUM
Statement of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the
C.C. of AKEL, 3rd April 2013, Nicosia
We express our regret because instead of the Government being conscious of the plight and dire straits in which the country has fallen after its agreement with the Eurogroup, it is celebrating that supposedly it has achieved improvements in the Memorandum. It is deliberately hiding all the agreements that have been made and not just the text that was concluded yesterday.
We reiterate that unfortunately we do not have yesterday’s agreed text in our hands so that we can analyze it and make our own assessments. Furthermore, we point out that not enough time was given to us so that we could spell out our own views about the issues under discussion.
However, we are already aware of certain provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding, such as the haircut on bank deposits, the increase in corporate tax and privatizations. In short, given that the government has accepted provisions that will result in the destruction of the Cyprus economy and society, it is celebrating that the Memorandum it has drawn up with the Troika will be our salvation. Equally absurd is the fact that Mr. Anastasiades was stating on Sunday that there won’t be any reductions in salaries and pensions for us to discover, regardless of the pretext that was used, that in fact there will be. His inconsistency and unreliability have once again been demonstrated.
We reiterate that our evaluation is that the comprehensive agreement of the Government with the Eurogroup will be disastrous for our country and people. It loads the shoulders of the working people with unbearable burdens, increases unemployment and poverty, destroys Cyprus as a financial centre and strangles growth, small and middle businesses, even large enterprises too.
This is why we insist that a collective reflection must begin for another course outside the suffocating embrace of the Troika which endangers the perspective of Cyprus becoming a regional energy centre, but also the prospect for a solution of the Cyprus problem.
