Now is the time for all those people who want real change and envision the Cyprus of the future to have their say

Statement by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 30th January 2018, Nicosia

The election result on Sunday will determine not just the next five year term, but also subsequent decades. It will determine in which Cyprus we, our children and grandchildren, will live in.

We call on Mr. Anastasiades’ election campaign team to confront us in this election campaign with seriousness and arguments, far from populisms and personal attacks. The animosity, aphorisms and rage with which it is launching attacks against the former President of the Republic as early as Sunday evening drives us back to bygone times. At the same time, it reveals the emptiness of the proposals and absence of positions of Mr. Anastasiades’ election team about Cyprus” future.

What the people need to hear right now are proposals and solutions concerning the small and big problems they face. Right now the people need leaders with ethos, sincerity, seriousness and credibility. And that person is Stavros Malas.

Mr. Anastasiades has given everything he had to give. He is censured for his inconsistency and regressions on the Cyprus problem. He is criticized by the majority of Cypriot society for the fact that during his administration social inequality has never been so great, for the fact that poverty has increased threatening one-third of our people, for the deregulation of labour relations and for the thousands of Cypriots who have emigrated.

He is denounced by a large section of the people for the incidents of interwoven interests, corruption and cronyism/clientelism that have taken place during his term of office and which were unprecedented.

Now is the time to leave all this, namely the Cyprus of the past, behind us. Now is the time for all those people who want real change to have their say; those people who envision the Cyprus of the future. With dignified and quality jobs. With a welfare state that will protect those in need. With primary family homes and small business premises protected. For a future without working people worki9ng in shops and supermarkets being forced to work on Sunday. For a different Cyprus, which will take steps forward with progressive reforms and radical changes, with transparency, meritocracy and growth for all. Stavros Malas is the only candidate who can steer Cyprus on this path.

Now is the time for all of us to march along the road together to get rid of the Anastasiades government, on the path for real change with seriousness, responsibility and credibility.