DISY Party President’s public admissions regarding privatizations

 

Statement by Georgios Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Press Spokesperson

 

We welcome the public admission of the otherwise long-standing position of the governing Democratic Rally party DISY by its President Averof Neofytou that in their opinion the privatizations of the profitable Semi-state organisations are necessary reforms, which we should have long ago promoted on our own initiative.

We note that Mr. Neofytou’s admission can be added to the recent statements to those made by the Minister of Finance that the Memorandum yoke that was imposed on our country by the government and the forces supporting it, represents their ideological and political manifesto.

At the same time, however, inescapable questions arise for the Democratic Rally party and the Anastasiades government from these public admissions:

– Were they or were they not lying, mocking the people and workers employed in the Semi-state organisations when before the elections they gave them the pledge that they would not accept privatizations?

– Are the leading officials of DISY lying or not until today, when they use the Memorandum as a smokescreen to conceal their position in favour of handing over our national wealth to local and foreign private interests?

– Was it or was it not a joke all the talk about an assertive stand towards the Troika, in response to AKEL’s denunciations regarding DISY’s and Anastasiades’ complete ideological identification with the Troika’s neoliberal fundamentalism?

In addition to the statements made by the DISY President the following important questions also arise:

– How can Mr. Neofytou and the DISY party, avoiding the essence, consider working people’s strike mobilisations as holding Democracy to ransom, but at the same time ignore the blatant blackmail exerted by the Troika and the government on the House of Representatives not to grant the fourth instalment if the horrendous Bill tabled for privatization is not approved?

– Do Mr. Neofytou and Anastasiades….”pledge” that they will not be completely refuted, as they had been when fifteen years ago they forecasted the collapse of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA) because of competition, but in the end CYTA not only withstood the competition but provided €650 million to the state as dividends, maintaining profitability of €100 million in 2013?

– Do Neofytou and Anastasiades pledge and really expect people to believe them that in the future the greed of the private monopolies and oligopolies that will control CYTA, the Cyprus Electricity Authority (EAC) and the Cyprus Ports Authority will not lead to the brutal and relentless exploitation of the economy, taxpayers, consumers and the working people, and that there will not be any subsequent issue of national security raised whatsoever in a semi-occupied homeland?