Speech of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, at the 28th Pancyprian Festival of Youth and Students
Thursday 9th July 2015, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia
We always feel proud of EDON. Yet, every year when we enter the grounds of the Festival we feel even more proud. Every year we verify that that the members and cadres of EDON do not yield or give in. No matter how many difficulties exist, no matter how many obstacles they raise before them, the members of EDON always find the way to convey the hope; the way to always pave the way for young people – the path of knowledge, reflection, struggle, culture and creation. This is the Festival of EDON.
The Festival of EDON is a small society designed and constructed through the hard work of the members and cadres of EDON; through the selfless and tireless persistent work of hundreds of volunteers. This is precisely what we all admire and makes us feel proud. This is also gives us hope; the hope that there is a youth that is resisting, which does not yield and which is struggling for dignity in life because in the final analysis this is what they want to deny us: our dignity and life.
Worst of all they think that they can pacify an entire people and especially young people with empty words and promises. Mr. Anastasiades boasts that no taxes have been imposed and that wages and pensions have not been cut. It is evident that he is not living in Cyprus. If he did he would know that during his administration all those who dared have a primary home have been taxed in a leveling way. He would know that today wages of 400 Euros are paid and pensions of 350 Euros are granted. The Finance Minister is trying to give courage to the Cypriot people, who has been the victim of the haircut on bank deposits and economically suffocated. He is stating that the difficult times of the Memorandum are now coming to an end and propagating that we must not return to the mentalities that destroyed the economy? But he doesn’t of course say that the same anti-social policies will continue. He doesn’t say to the people which mentalities he means. Does he perhaps mean dignified jobs with dignified wages? Does he mean the protection of all those who have suffered from the crisis as a result of foreclosures? Does he mean our rejection of privatizations, even of the air we breathe?
The Minister of Labour is trying to persuade us that the victims of the crisis are protected by the Guaranteed Minimum Income, the so-called “radical reform” as they call it. One really wonders if they themselves know what it means for a family to survive on 500 Euros; do they really know what it means for disabled people and pensioners to see their benefit cut. They are trying to hide all these policies through misleading talk about millionaires on benefits, except if they claim that the 17,000 pensioners on low incomes who have seen their small pension cut are millionaires. As a result of the cuts they have made in the supplementary pensions and public assistances, 10 million Euros have been saved at the same time when the numbers of those in need of support from the state are swelling. They have found a reply for them as well, by resorting to issuing decrees of charity – charity, not the provision of all-round state support. They reject AKEL’s proposals as being anti-constitutional. This is the logic that prevails during the Anastasiades governance. The protection of the primary home, the regulation of rents and working hours, the enhancement of the welfare state are considered as anti-constitutional demands. The Constitution according to the logic of the Anastasiades-DISY government enables only the haircut on bank deposits, foreclosures and privatizations in a semi-occupied country. This is their logic.
It is the logic that is leveling our people’s dignity and the dignity of our young people. They forbid young people to make any dreams. Is there any hope? Hope exists as long as there is resistance, as long as there is the force that can show the way forward; the path of the reunification of our country, the prosperity and progress of our people. There is hope as long as there is a powerful AKEL which is a force for the people – AKEL which has EDON at its side which is in the frontline of the struggles of the People’s Movement of the Left. There is hope as long as EDON exists!
Long live the 28th Festival of EDON!
