
Government/DISY demonized AKEL’s proposal but adopted it – Let the people judge them
Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou on the government’s new measures
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 9th April 2020, Nicosia
To judge the government’s measures, it is important to see what we have been supporting over the last few days, what the Minister of Finance and ruling DISY party was saying and in which direction the government’s announcements are going.
We said from the beginning that the economy’s problems must be addressed according to a specific outlook.
We proposed the issuing of a bond from which we would draw money so as to have the necessary liquidity that would be used to provide support to working people, small and medium-sized enterprises, the self-employed and large enterprises.
AKEL proposed that during the period when the government’s strict restrictive measures would apply, working people, the self-employed, small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses in general should be supported by the state itself, by the government itself. At the same time, we proposed for the second period whenever the kick starting of the economy would begin that small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses in general should be supported through low-interest loaning, with an interest rate that would permit them to repay these loans in six years.
All this time and up till yesterday, the Minister of Finance was accusing us because of the proposals we had submitted, declaring that our proposed measures would endanger the economy itself. DISY accused us of dogmatism and of ignoring cooperation aiming to solve the problems facing the country.
Last night we have noted that the measures announced by the government, at least as far as the first part is concerned, are in line with the outlook we had proposed, namely the issuance of a bond, support for workers, the self-employed, small and medium-sized enterprises and businesses for the period in which the strict restrictive measure will apply and measures aimed at kick starting the economy.
We will study the measures very carefully and will judge them in an extremely specific way. But I want to say that the outlook, at least as far as the first part is concerned, as the government has submitted it, is the one that they were demonising all through the previous period, the one that we as AKEL had proposed.
We as an opposition party have behaved in a responsible manner. All through this period of the crisis, we have repeatedly tabled proposals on issues regarding health, working people, small and medium-sized enterprises, education, culture, and we shall continue to do so by putting forth proposals on other issues too.
All this time the only thing the ruling DISY party has been interested in is its communication image. While for days it has been accusing us of being dogmatic, as a party that was supposedly not interested in cooperating, now that the government has adopted our own proposals and outlook, it is once again attempting to make a U turn to capitalize on what is being announced and to accuse us of engaging in opposition political games. Let the people judge them.
I have said before that we will study very carefully the second part of the measures proposed by the government.
At the same time, I would like to reiterate some issues that we have raised in the past and which we have noted haven’t been adopted by the government so far.
- We insist that the government should find a way to settle the issue of rents in a way that the state, the tenant and the owner will contribute.
- We insist that a way must be found to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition to the rent issue, SME’s should also be supported as regards the question of loans. The idea of establishing a guarantee fund for businesses was discussed in the past. This issue must concern us again.
- We want the issue of postdated checks to be resolved.
- We want to see the issues concerning insurance companies and the installments for insurance companies regulated.
- And above all we want the people of the front line of the battle against the pandemic to be supported. That is to say, the people who work in bakeries, pharmacies and supermarkets. Those very people who are working to contribute to society as a whole. We need to take care of these people and we need to protect them.
I repeat that we believe that the period our country is going through is very critical, each of us needs to play his/her own role in tackling the problems and AKEL, always constructive and positive, through the elaboration and submission of specific proposals will seek to influence the decisions which are taken by the government.
