Nikos Christodoulides continues from where his predecessor left off

 

20 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Although it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, it is clear that so far Nikos Christodoulides has proven to fall far short of the expectations he himself had cultivated during the presidential election campaign. The broken promises surrounding the composition of the government and the choices made in relation to government appointments and advisors that society views as provocative reveal that Nikos Christodoulides is continuing from where his predecessor left off.

However, the Cypriot people’s major social problems – namely wages, expensiveness, housing, the arbitrariness of the banks and foreclosures – are becoming more acute and demand solutions with a radically different policy, not the issuing of yet more government announcements. We have experienced this familiar situation over the past ten years. We note, of course, those issues where the government has recorded positive moves, such as on the quarterly exams issue and the termination of the purchase for services system in education, on which it has fully adopted AKEL’s positions, which we acknowledge.

However, even belatedly, President Christodoulides has not avoided the cultivation of expectations, such as on the Cyprus problem and energy, where we are still waiting to see tangible results. In the first 100 days of his administration, Mr. Christodoulides should have realised that it is one thing to pursue a communication policy and another to govern with the implementation of specific policies that deliver results for the country and the people.

On its part, AKEL will continue its opposition, by exercising well-documented criticism and submitting realistic proposals, always with the needs of the overwhelming social majority in mind: that is to say, the working people, the middle strata and the young generation.