Press Conference of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL

 

AKEL C.C. Press Office, Tuesday 10th March 2015

 

Our country is going through one of the most critical periods in its history. We believe that it is the duty of every political party to review the path Cyprus is being led on and outline its own assessment about this path. All political parties should express their own opinions about what must change and how we should move forward.

Two years have already passed since the Government of Anastasiades and the DISY Rally party assumed power. President Anastasiades and the Democratic Rally party made many promises during the pre-election campaign and as many pledges too. We do not underestimate in any way the objective difficulties which the Government had to face. However, they themselves stressed during the elections that they knew all the problems and had all the solutions ready for everything. Undoubtedly they knew some problems, since they themselves helped to create them. Regretfully, after the elections they forgot all the solutions.

With regards the Cyprus problem, Mr. Anastasiades and the leadership of the Democratic Rally party were saying that they had the capability and contacts within the international community enabling them to present alternative proposals that would give an impetus to the substantive dialogue and that would corner Turkey and hold her accountable.

Two years have elapsed and the results are depressing. Substantive negotiations have still not begun. The occupying power Turkey, despite the fact that it bears the main responsibility for the deadlock, is becoming more and more provocative and aggressive, while presenting itself as the side that wants and is seeking the solution of the Cyprus problem. The statements made by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu after his recent meeting with the UN Secretary-General are indicative. He accused our side as responsible for the impasse, promoting his country as the side ready to work for the achievement of a solution. Although Turkey invaded and illegally occupies a large part of the Republic of Cyprus, although it is becoming more and more provocative and aggressive, the international community’s reaction ranges from timid towards Turkey to negative for us.

Equally indicative is the UN Secretary-General’s last Report which was the worst in recent years for the Greek Cypriot side, as was the bringing back of the issue of direct trade with the occupied areas, but also the negative statements for our side made by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide.

The issue of natural gas was turned from a sovereign right of the lawful Government of the Republic of Cyprus into an issue of the negotiations. It is evident that if there is no solution of the Cyprus problem Turkey will by all means try to impede the utilisation of our natural wealth. Worst of all is the on-going deadlock that suits Turkey in the promotion of its partitionist goals.

We call on Mr. Anastasiades to take initiatives that will lead to the withdrawal of the Turkish NAVTEX and Turkish vessel “Barbaros”, as well as to the creation of preconditions for the resumption of substantive negotiations, far from any threats and blackmail and without abandoning our sovereign rights. If and when the negotiations will resume, we urge him to handle them by defending principles, with consistency, seriousness and responsibility, far from any contradictions, regressions and tactical games. We call on him to continue the negotiations from where they had left of, with the Christofias-Talat convergences as the basis. If he operates within this framework we assure the Cypriot people that AKEL, acting responsibly and constructively as it has always done, will support the procedure.

A correct solution of the Cyprus problem will also give a boost to growth, something which is indispensable to kick-start the economy. The pre-election, but also post-election pledges of Mr. Anastasiades and DISY party have regretfully proved to be mere empty words. Mr. Anastasiades from “the strong leader the crisis needs” has turned into an obedient tool of the Troika. Before the elections he was promising bridge loans that would enable him to negotiate sternly with his European “friends” to improve the Memorandum. In the end, he concluded a Memorandum unquestionably worse. In the election campaign the haircut/one-off levy on bank deposits, privatisations and the increase in corporation tax, which were considered by Mr. Anastasiades as being “declarations of war”, were just some of his “achievements” in the Memorandum he signed and which they call today their “political manifesto”.

Two years later, the situation is depressing for the Cyprus economy and society. Unemployment has risen to over 16% and that was without calculating the number of young people who have emigrated. It should be noted that for the first time their number is bigger than those coming to work in Cyprus. Furthermore, it is estimated that the number of community workers, who are leaving the island, is also not being calculated. If all this was taken into account then the number of unemployed would approach 23%. Unemployment among young people has risen to 35%.

Wages and pensions have been reduced, in some cases by over 30%, driving a large section of the people to misery. The result is 29% are below the poverty live. The deregulation of labour relations is another great “achievement” of the government that is driving us back to labour and working conditions reminiscent of the Middle Ages.

Unemployment, wage cuts and reductions in pensions have rendered thousands of borrowers incapable of repaying their debts. Faithful to their philosophy the Government and the Troika, in this case too, are protecting the interests of banks and not of small borrowers who fell victims of their own decisions, promoting the foreclosures of their primary family residence and small businesses because of the foreclosures law. At the same time, the privatisations of public utility organisations, which have always given support to the Cypriot state and its security by offering high-quality services to the people, are being promoted.

They are attempting to present this bleak picture to the Cypriot people as a bright perspective. They say that we should just have a little more patience and we will exit from the Memorandum; that better days are around the corner. They are once again trying to fool and mislead the people. All the Memoranda come to an end and expire. What they don’t say however is what situation and state the country and people will be left in with the end of the Memorandum. Will the Memorandum leave anything standing for future generations? Wages, pensions, health, education, social assets – they have all been targeted by the Memorandum. What they don’t also say is that when the Memoranda comes to an end countries will be monitored by a control mechanism to oversee the policies to be implemented; that these countries will be captives of restrictions which the European Union imposes on them as the gospel.

One only has to look at countries such as Ireland and Spain and then one understands what really is going on. Demonstrations are frequent and massive, whilst the foreclosures of primary residences are on the agenda. In 2014 alone 35,000 homes in Spain were seized. We call on Mr. Anastasiades and DISY to realise that the course we are being driven on is a dead-end policy. They must understand that a collective charting of another approach is demanded; an approach that will attempt to forge cooperation with other European governments to set out alternative policy choices.

No matter how much criticism was exerted on the previous government it is not easy for someone to question the significant work that it did in the area of Natural Gas. Through its actions, the Christofias government opened up a big perspective for the country with regards the chapter on energy. Mr. Anastasiades took from the Christofias government a comprehensive plan for the development and utilisation of the hydrocarbons that are within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEC) of the Republic of Cyprus.  The Christofias government had signed contracts with big conglomerates and companies which included a dynamic programme of drilling and readymade structures, such as the Cyprus Hydrocarbons State Company (KRETYK), staffed by established scientists and technocrats.

During the pre-election campaign Mr. Anastasiades talked about a national strategy to utilise Natural Gas, with timetables that would be fully followed strictly on time. Two years have passed and the situation on this issue is also depressing. Despite the constant appeals and calls issued by AKEL, the Government instead of working with speediness, flexibility and resolve to implement the plans demonstrated an unprecedented and unjustifiable inertia and delay. All the planning that had been prepared was suspended and reversed. KRETYK was dissolved, renowned and established scientists were snubbed and ignored, discussions with Israeli companies stopped and all the studies conducted by specialised consultative agencies from abroad were rejected. The creation of a Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal in Vassilikos was abandoned. Cyprus ceased being considered as the ideal regional centre for the liquefaction and export of Natural Gas to the international markets, with investments of billions of Euros and the creation of thousands of jobs for Cypriots and was turned into a poor and weak relative that has reserves, but cannot have hopes from them.

In addition, despite Mr. Anastasiades’ endless promises about transparency and briefing on all issues affecting our country, he insists for two years now on consulting with the Troika on energy issues, behind closed doors without anyone knowing what commitments he has undertaken towards them. During the election campaign Mr. Anastasiades was making promises in all directions to steal the people’s vote. After the elections, he forgot all about them.

He promised that he would not accept the abolition of government bonds. He signed their abolition. He promised he would not accept the delisting of shares. He nullified them at the Eurogroup meeting on 25th March 2013. We hear a lot of talk about investments, but we haven’t seen any. The only investments we have seen have been that of some speculative aggressive capital in the banking sector.

In addition, there is a whole number of other pledges that have remained empty words. For example, one-stop access for businesses, the definitive tackling of the delay in the issuing of title deeds and more investment in the tourism sector. With regards tourism in particular, not only has nothing been promoted, but there isn’t even any plan to address the impact of the problems that have arisen, especially from the Russian market. The only thing they have achieved is to put the Cyprus Tourism Organisation CTO under their full control.

At some stage of his election campaign Mr. Anastasiades and the Democratic Rally party had promised to become a “Government by the people, for the people.” The policies they are imposing on the people today have rendered this promise an election fraud, even greater than that infamous “I pledge” the President had declared. It is obvious that the only interests they are serving so far are those of the banks and certain large companies.

The pledge to stamp out tax evasion has been turned into a web of protection for the big borrowers and a constant hunting down of small borrowers who are being dragged to the courts. Farmers are still waiting for incentives, grants and public land to restructure the agricultural sector. As for the National Health Scheme not only has its implementation not been promoted, but the government is trying to subjugate it to the interests of the private sector.

The SME’s are another large group that was deliberately hurt by the policies of the Anastasiades-Democratic Rally government. The election promise to establish a guarantee fund was not fulfilled, instead only a variation was promoted with many defects. The same goes for the promise not to impose any additional taxes and the pledge to reduce VAT on the acquisition of the primary professional premise to 5%. The policy of extending shopping hours has crippled thousands of small businesses, causing at the same time problems to thousands of families. With regards SME’s in particular, the indifference, but also the mercilessness with which the Government addressed AKEL’s proposals and appeals is provocative. In the most unfair and amateur way possible the tax on immovable property was imposed. Disregarding the social consequences, the Government imposed cuts in pensions and social benefits and attacked education and health. Let me recall that funds for health have been reduced by 102 million Euros over the last two years.

In the pre-election campaign Mr. Anastasiades kept on repeating as many times as he could one word, namely “trust”. In just two years he has breached it countless times. He breached it with the successive lies he said about the haircut on bank deposits, but also by the revelation that just a few days after the events of the March 2013 Eurogroup meeting, vast amounts of money were smuggled abroad by Mr. Anastasiades’ close family circle. He broke the trust by refuting expectations they themselves had raised in society with the setting up of an Investigative Committee on the economy, which proved to be a fiasco, since not even its establishment was legal. Trust was breached by the revelation that the Downer document had indeed been delivered; by the signing of the Charter of Ethics from the entire Government and all the grotesque developments that followed it; by the lost files, lost contracts, the private jet generously donated by friends and customers.

All of this happening with the shadow of the President’s Law Office looming everywhere: from the meetings in the Presidential Palace with under cover lawyers right up to the issues relating to the Bank of Cyprus. The trust was breached with the land transactions of the Archdiocese through instalments free of interest and with appointments of those termed as “the elite of the excellent”, some of whom have failed miserably in their tasks even before the year has begun.

“A prerequisite for the successful outcome of every collective effort is in my opinion consultation; consultation with the political parties, consultation with citizens. I am deeply convinced that only through the synthesis of views and ideas, rejecting ideologies and dogmatism can we create the conditions for a new national consensus that will open up a new perspective for the country.” These were the words of Mr. Anastasiades during the election campaign.

After the election, everything has been forgotten. Unity was never forged. Instead authoritarianism, arrogance and division dominate political life. What consensus is there? I’ll just cite just one example: the appointment of the President of the Fiscal Council with a generous indeed salary; a salary which was rejected by the House of the Representatives, subsequently ignored by the President who went on to appoint him to the post. What consultation are we talking about? If one considers how the Government chose to handle the issue of the legislation on foreclosures, the last thing anyone can talk about is consultation.

When have they managed to abandon their dogmatism? When they claim that they do not want privatizations for economic reasons, but because this is what their ideological perception demands? What collective effort have they made to forge unity? Was it perhaps when the sacrifice of each and every hero has been denigrated so as to end up being equated with those who were supposedly only “obeying orders” in the execution of the coup d’état of 1974? Was it when the doctrine harking back to the 50’s, namely that “whoever is not with us is against us”, is being implemented in the public services, even in our country’s public life? Is it when the President makes a conscious decision to appoint as Deputy Attorney General of the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus a man with well-known party affiliations who celebrated wildly with him on party platforms during the election campaign? Was it when all of Cyprus heard in leaked recorded conversations how a trial was fixed; how football matches are fixed, who and how many are up to their necks in corruption while the authorities don’t give a damn? In any other country, all of this would cause a political upheaval. In Cyprus under the administration of Nicos Anastasiades it did not provoke even some sort of shame to their protagonists.

The evaluation of the two years of the Anastasiades administration can be summarized in three words: disappointment, degradation and untrustworthiness. This is not merely AKEL’s assessment that someone perhaps might say is due to oppositionist considerations. It is an assessment that we also hear daily being made by organized groups and people from all political spectrums, even by people who are not even politicized.

Numerous other policy areas not mentioned previously have come under constant pressure in attacks waged by the Anastasiades government and DISY party. AKEL has fully assessed all that has not been done. We have evaluated all that is being done in the opposite direction from what Mr. Anastasiades was projecting before the election.

During these two years AKEL did not just criticize. Through the tabling of Bills in the House of Representatives, through suggestions and proposals submitted to the Government and demonstrating a constant willingness for dialogue, AKEL was and is trying not to destroy the last bridges of understanding. It tried and is trying to find ways and solutions to pressing problems facing the country and which affect every Cypriot. Everyone knows we monitor developments on the Cyprus problem. We have already made public the proposals we tabled at the special session of the National Council[1] on the Cyprus problem. With regards the economy and SME’s we have submitted our proposals both to the President of the Republic and the House of Representatives, whilst we will discuss additional proposals at the 22th Congress of AKEL. The same also applies to areas such as health, education, the welfare state, the stamping out of corruption, women, immigration, farmers and many others. Besides, we have already published all of our positions and proposals that will be put before the upcoming Congress.

Today frustration with what is happening and distrust on what can be done is dominant almost everywhere. Our people have and are experiencing unprecedented situations. The Cypriot people feel cheated; it feels its dignity has been taken away from it; that it has been driven back decades to the years of extortion and slavery, to the period of subjugation.

Instead of looking forward to tomorrow the Cypriot people is scared because it does not know what the future will bring. This is what we want to change. Nobody has a magic wand, neither the Government nor the opposition. The real question is what each one believes must be done.

We believe that we must not become willing executioners of orders and commands. The day after the Memorandum must not dawn with a Cyprus that does not belong to us. The economic crisis must not lead to the people remaining on its knees from poverty and destitution.

We have the strength. We have the will. We have the way forward. We can stand up and resist. We must continue to struggle both inside and outside parliament, in Cyprus and abroad, even more decisively because, if nothing else, we owe a different Cyprus to the generations to come.

[1] Advisory body to the given President of the Republic on the Cyprus problem composed of all the parliamentary parties and former Presidents set up by the late President Makarios after the fascist coup d’état and subsequent Turkish invasion and occupation in the summer of 1974.