Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou during the debate on the State Budget for 2023

 

6 December 2022, House of Representatives

The debate on the annual state budget always develops into a full-fledged discussion on the prevailing situation of the country and the achievements of the given government.

This year’s debate takes place in the context of the completion of the country’s ten-year rule by the DISY Democratic Rally. Inevitably, the budget debate assumes the character of an overall assessment of the DISY government’s record.

An evaluation that must be based first and foremost according to qualitative indicators. It is these indicators that determine the content of the policies implemented, as well as the government’s general activity.

It is well-known, as we have stated it publicly, that the Central Committee of AKEL unanimously decided to vote against the budget of the Anastasiades-DISY government this year too. We have no other choice, since this year’s budget follows the same logic and philosophy as all the previous budgets we have rejected. The government has not changed the direction, priorities and character of its policies.

Let the government spokesman not come out again to declare that AKEL is levelling everything and engaging in destructive opposition. DISY, when it itself was in opposition, voted against the state budgets because, as N. Anastasiades, as the then president of DISY, stated, “DISY disagrees with the proposed budget, so it will vote against it”. What is more normal that that. We have a democracy!

I will for that reason begin my speech by making an overall assessment of DISY’s ten years of governance.

Our assessment has a strong negative tone.

In the ten years DISY has been in power, our country and society took steps backwards instead of steps forward.

• The DISY government has failed to respond adequately to the challenges and stakes that our country faces.
• In addition to the existing problems, it has created new ones, while the deadlocks, especially for our young people, who are the future of our country, have multiplied.
• Social and economic insecurity has increased in recent years for the majority of society. Today, social insecurity is increasing even more because of the insecurity that is draining the budgets of households and businesses.

The government is unable to confront these challenges and problems. It prefers to maintain high budget surpluses derived from the additional revenues it has collected because of the increased tax receipts, instead of returning some of these revenues to households and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Cyprus, according to European statistics, ranks fourth from the bottom in the table on the allocation of resources to provide support to society and the economy in response to the energy crisis and poverty.

We are not talking about emptying the funds, as the government ruling forces falsely claim. We are calling for what is being implemented across Europe.

Long-standing problems have deteriorated instead of being solved. This is what happened with the corruption and entanglement/interwoven interests that have reached unprecedented levels during the DISY government, especially institutional corruption.

This has been documented in numerous international reports. For example, the recent IMF Report which reveals that since 2014 there has been a serious slide downwards in the areas of governance and in particular with regards corruption, governance effectiveness and the judiciary.

The rule of law has deteriorated, institutions have been undermined or lack the independence they should have, as the European Commission’s 2021 Report on the unsatisfactory state of the rule of law in Cyprus points out.

It is no coincidence that during the term of office of this government, the familiar “shame on you Mr. President” was heard from the previous. Attorney General. It is the result of the shady behaviour of the government ruling forces towards the state’s institutions.

Social inequalities have not been addressed, but perpetuated and in fact at numerous levels have grown.

This is primarily reflected in the fact that the share of profits in the GDP has increased in contrast to the reduction of the share of wages. The economy is recording growth, but working people are not getting back what they deserve. The distribution of the wealth produced is done in such a way that it constantly reinforces the process of reversing the capital-labour balance of forces.

The EU’s statistical office noted that in 2021 Cypriot workers had the biggest reduction in earnings across the EU.

Even on issues where the government has attempted to initiate reforms, such as the health system, the National Health Scheme (GESY) is being attacked and undermined from within, by government and DISY officials, as even former Anastasiades government officials themselves have point out.

Cyprus is still among the world leaders in private debt and number of non-performing loans. The transfer of these loans to credit companies may help the banks to present an improved picture, but the loans remain on society and the economy.

Thousands of our fellow citizens are losing or in danger of losing their primary homes and property.

The increase in interest rates further aggravates an already difficult situation for borrowers and beyond.

 

The Cyprus problem

Under the DISY government, the Cyprus problem is in its worst situation ever. Since 2017, our national problem has been in a prolonged negotiating stalemate. The longest in duration.

Turkey, despite its provocative and aggressive actions, is relieved of responsibilities in the eyes of the international community

In contrast to Turkey, the Greek Cypriot side is considered by the international community – together with the Turkish Cypriot side – as jointly responsible for both the deadlock and the negotiating vacuum.

Turkey is exploiting this situation to impose new occupation fait accompli on the ground without actually facing any international reaction whatsoever or suffering any costs. The status quo is sliding further and further towards permanent partition.

The above facts – Turkey threatening and our side being apportioned responsibilities – epitomizes the abject failure of the President’s policy on the Cyprus problem. A policy that is contradictory and full of regressions. So many regressions and backtrackings that the outgoing President has gone so far as to sound out various forces/figures both inside and outside Cyprus for a two state solution. Namely, the very solution that the Turkish side is seeking.

Against the backdrop of this difficult and extremely dangerous situation, the DISY government is passively and indifferently watching the continuous slide towards the consolidation of partition. Its only interest – as in other serious issues too – is to manage domestic public opinion by instrumentalising Turkey’s aggressive behaviour.

It is a fact that from the penthouses of the towers that have been built in Limassol one cannot see the crescent of occupation on the occupied Pentadaktylos mountain range.

The partial opening of the enclosed area of Famagusta did not move the government ruling forces into action, since according to the then Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, what Turkey was asserting was a communication ploy, while according to DISY President Averof Neophytou, Turkey was not going to proceed to such moves.

The government and ruling DISY party wandered and misled the people about the supposed imposition of sanctions by the EU that would hurt Turkey and about the forging of multilateral agreements that would supposedly shield the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus. It all turned out to be big empty talk and illusions.

 

Cyprus humiliated across the world

The outgoing government is ending its term of office and leaving the country with its prestige shattered and its credibility in Europe and internationally destroyed. A huge role in this negative development was played by the scandal of the “golden passport” business scheme which was set up by the government ruling forces.

This is precisely why the European Commission publicly and quite clearly stated in January 2019 that it had ceased to have confidence in the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus, denouncing them for undermining the security of Europe.

It is to these accusations that Nicos Anastasiades responded the same day by denouncing the European Commission for serving the interests of Cyprus’ competitors. He claimed that our country has the strictest criteria of all the other member states for granting citizenship.

I am the last person to argue that the Commission does not operate with a set agenda. But in truth, why did the outgoing President want to claim that we have the strictest criteria when almost half of all passports have been issued illegally and irregularly?

This is what the Committee set up to investigate the matter has concluded.

It no longer needs any debate to claim that on the matter of ‘golden passports’ not only did the government not have the strictest criteria in place, but that whatever criteria existed were subsequently adjusted and applied depending on who the provider is and who benefits.

That is precisely why the government posted relatives, even from Parliament to the Ministry of Interior, to apparently look after those passports that the government ruling forces wanted to get sorted immediately.

And the benefit was indeed enormous when you consider that the turnover of the passports scheme reached, according to some estimates, 7 to 8 billion euros. The few and those privileged enough to have access to the ring that was set up reaped the benefits.

By doing so, Cyprus issued passports to fraudsters wanted by Interpol and Europol, to lackeys, to members of dictatorial governments, to friends who made it easy for the President to borrow their plane to go on leisure trips to the Seychelles.

A lot has already been said on this issue and I will not go into it any further.

 

The wiretapping/surveillance scandal

The recent wiretapping/surveillance scandal has subsequently followed the “golden passport” scandal that has damaged Cyprus’ credibility internationally. This is an issue over which in Greece close associates of the Prime Minister have resigned, while the European Parliament has set up a committee of inquiry, PEGA.

Here in Cyprus, the government and DISY are burying their heads in the sand.

It is obvious that the government ruling forces are adopting this stance because many of the findings, much of the evidence and indications, point the finger at the Presidency and DISY central headquarters.

The government ruling forces – the President, government and DISY – have never felt the need to give explanations:

• How did a spy van that arrived in Cyprus officially as meteorological equipment manage to pass through the port, customs, the scrutiny of all the government agencies involved and finally end up roaming the streets of Cyprus unhindered, wiretapping and monitoring how many people and whom no one knows?
• How did the companies that owned the black spy van establish cooperation with the Police, a fact that the leadership of the Police tried to conceal from Parliament?
• How was it that these companies happened to seek the help and mediation of DISY to do business abroad?
• How comes the Attorney General’s Office sent only the companies to court and not their owners?
• Why is the conclusion of the criminal investigation [on the black spy van case] that was carried out kept a top secret unlike other findings that were made public?
• In truth, where is that sensitivity today that DISY showed in opposition when it demanded all findings without exception should be made public?

Numerous questions are raised. The answers are few, perforated and contradictory. There is an “omertà” imposed by the government ruling forces, as on other matters as well.

 

1. The huge moral deficit

The scandal of the ‘golden passports’ and the wiretappings/surveillance reminds us of the most fundamental characteristic of the DISY government.

Namely, the huge moral deficit that characterizes the general presence and behavior of the DISY government.

• DISY’s government has damaged, degraded and ridiculed political morality.
• Through its actions it has perpetuated the perception among citizens that politics and politicians have nothing to do with ethics. That they are dishonest, untrustworthy and liars. The narrative “They are all the same, so don’t bother. There is no perspective or any hope”.

This is the perception the DISY government has consolidated, resulting in the growing populism and rise of the far right, which, by the way, the government ruling forces consider as a reserve force.

This was the case with the election of the Speaker of Parliament and now the far right is demanding its share form that election.

The huge moral political deficit of DISY’s governance is substantiated by:

• The curbing of transparency and lack of accountability, even though these were one of the first pledges made by the DISY government.
• I recall that in the Ethics Charter signed by the members of the DISY government, both in 2013 and 2018, there is a provision that stipulates that “it is an obligation of the government to be transparent, to have full respect for citizens”.
• The huge moral deficit of the government is haunted by glaring conflicts of interest. For what other than a conflict of interest is it for members of the government and the President himself, to approve applications for “golden passports” that come from their close relatives?

On this issue too, let me remind you of what the notorious (although the word devilish would be more appropriate here) Charter of Government Ethics provides for: “Members of the government must prevent any suspicion of any personal interest”.

• The conflict of interest takes us to the next characteristic of this government that we’ve already talked about. Namely, the increase of entanglement/interwoven interests and corruption. The international indicators that reflect this are irrefutable witness.
• The huge moral deficit is substantiated by the many lies the government has used throughout its rule. So many lies that the phrase “I pledge to” has literally become a joke.

The first big lie was about the haircut on bank deposits that was the key issue of the 2013 presidential election. Categorically and unmistakably, before the election, Anastasiades assured the people and foreign investors that “I will never accept a haircut on bank deposits because it would be disastrous for the economy” The pledge lasted for a fortnight and the haircut on bank deposits was subsequently imposed.

To be fair to the President, he didn’t haircut all the deposits. Some deposits amounting to millions were left behind. The ones belonging to in-laws, for example…

A big lie was told by the government ruling forces before the 2018 elections too, this time about the situation in the co-operative sector. They assured that “never before has such a professional job been done” and that “soon we will return the shares to the owners”.

What followed the 2018 presidential election is common knowledge: The Cooperative Bank was sacrificed in order to save a private bank. The fellow students and friends of those in power drove it into bankruptcy.

The haircut on bank deposits and the dissolution of the cooperative bank are two of the many glaring examples of the DISY government’s practice of lying about various issues/problems in substantive time. By doing so, the government ruling forces stole the vote of the people.

On the other hand, their lies absorbed popular reaction when it was expressed about various problems. And then, when these problems weren’t front page news, they did their own thing, usually in a completely opposite direction to the one they themselves had pledged to do.

This is how the government ruling forces acted on the issue of privatisation. Anastasiades even sent a letter to the employees of semi-governmental organizations with his signature on it before the 2013 elections, pledging that he would never privatize the Electricity Authority AHK, the Telecommunications Authority CYTA and the Ports Authority.

Thankfully we stood up to the government and it failed to privatise CYTA. It tried twice and we stopped it. Other than that, the EUR 1.2 billion that flowed into the state coffers from CYTA would have been channeled [if CYTA was privatized] into the pockets of some friends and fellow students of the government ruling forces.

The government ruling forces lied a lot about foreclosures and the protection of the primary home as well.

By the way, how many people remember the outgoing President’s letter to the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr. Yiannakis Omirou?

He said that within three weeks he would bring the “Rent instead of Mortgage’” scheme to Parliament. That was back in April 2014. It is now the end of 2022 and the government still hasn’t tabled it.

Only eight years have passed since then…

These are just some of the many lies and broken promises of the President and his administration.

The Anastasiades-DISY government will go down in history as the government that elevated lying and dishonesty as a key characteristic of its policy.

A characteristic feature of its moral deficit is that the government has never taken on any responsibility for anything negative that happens in Cyprus. It is always the fault of others and especially the previous government. The fact that even though DISY has been in power for ten years and constantly feels the need to resort to the familiar “blame the previous governments” shows an inability to defend its governance.

When you have nothing to say and nothing to show, you blame others.

Because I am sure that once again the “Christofias destroyed the economy” narrative will be repeated like a broken record, I will remind you – yet again – what the European Commission itself said about the crisis in Cyprus.

“It was the problems in the two big banks that caused the problems in public finances and the economic recession in Cyprus, not the other way round”.

 

1. Social insensitivity

The DISY government is characterized by a lack of sensitivity regarding the social and economic problems that plague a large section of society.

Dogmatically anchored in their neoliberal ideology, the government ruling forces, in a levelling manner, set out social policies without taking into account the nature and magnitude of society’s problems.

They have limited the scope of social policy only to the limits of issuing benefits. Social programmes and projects, schemes, infrastructures have been left out of their planning or have such limitations that they simply do not serve the people.

They have hyped up the Guaranteed minimum income (GMI) as a supposed “revolution” in social policy. But the criteria they have set are so strict that many people are excluded when they should be beneficiaries.

On labour relations issues, the government, either as an employer or as a mediator, has acted in favour of the deregulation of labour relations:

• By promoting the purchase of services for permanent needs in the public service, even in cases where the court ruled this practice to be illegal.
• By turning the custom of the minimum wage into a tool for the deregulation of labour.
• By imposing work on Sundays, dismantling the social fabric and breaking up families.
• By stubbornly refusing to discuss restoring gains that the Troika forced us to curtail, such as ending the 12% penalty for early retirement rate and reinstating the Cost of Living Allowance as it was before while starting to discuss its extension to cover workers employed in the private sector.
• By rejecting the legislative safeguarding of rights for all those workers not covered by agreed contracts.
• The culmination of the government’s social insensitivity is its approach towards combatting poverty as we described it previously, in contrast to the recommendations of the Commission and to what the vast majority of EU member states are in fact doing.

 

III. The inability to manage major issues

The government in its ten-year term of office has failed to deal with issues of critical importance for the country.

• The first issue has to do with energy and the country’s energy security. Since this government came to power and despite its repeated announcements of any energy programme, Cyprus remains with only one natural gas field confirmed. Namely, the ‘Aphrodite’ field, which was discovered and confirmed by the Christofias government.
• It is this field that the Anastasiades-DISY government was saying that it would go ahead with its exploitation as of 2016. “We will be extracting natural gas”, the then Energy Minister was declaring. Six long years have passed since then and these statements are still empty talk.
• Equally unfulfilled were the four attempts by the government to bring in natural gas for power generation purposes. The government never succeeded in bringing natural gas despite the pronouncements and grandiose statements that were being made by the relevant Ministers and the President himself.
• I note that it is doubtful – extremely doubtful – that the government will be able to complete the necessary infrastructures by next June, a target that has been revised several times.

The non-arrival of natural gas for power generation purposes costs the Cypriot taxpayer EUR 250 million in pollutants for this year alone, which of course comes out of taxpayers’ pockets.

• There are also serious problems in the promotion of other necessary infrastructures in the energy sector, which raises serious issues of energy adequacy and security for the country.
• The government has also shown extraordinary incompetence on the issue of renewable energy sources penetration in our country’s energy mix. We are falling short of meeting the EU’s targets and we risk paying a hefty fine, which again will be paid by taxpayers.

The government insists on policies, such as avoidance costs, that are driving up the price of renewable electricity. Consumers pay them, while various companies are making excess profits. Furthermore, the government refuses to tax super-profits.

The migration issue

The other critical issue that the government has failed to address effectively is migration.

The government received 2,344 individual asylum applications from the previous government. Today there are almost 28,000 applications pending, almost twelve times more. Along with these, another 7,000 or so applications are pending before the Court of International Protection.

The big increase in the backlog of asylum applications is the result of the government’s inability to process applications quickly.

Instead of being processed in six months, as required by law, these applications are processed in three, five and even seven years. How can asylum seekers but be stacked up [in reception centres]?

The problems that exist both inside and outside the Pournara migration reception centre, as well as in other structures, are the result of the government’s inability to properly, timely and in a targeted manner handle the many millions of Euros it receives from the EU (by 2027 it will exceed 200 million euros).

Instead of demanding practical solidarity from the EU, the government is going along with European policies that provide for the confinement of asylum seekers in the first country of arrival. And Cyprus is one such country.

Instead of demanding from the EU that asylum seekers be distributed among all member states according to their size and population, it is installing barbed wire along the ceasefire line under the illusion that it will address the issue.

As was recently said in Parliament, since the barbed wire fence was installed, the number of informal migrants from the occupied territories has in fact doubled.

Not only will the barbed wire fence not solve the migration problem, but it is already causing major problems for local residents and farmers.

In addition, this action sends out the wrong political messages to the international community. The way the government is acting will eventually give the territory on the ceasefire line to the Turkish army in the end. It will create a ‘hard’ border that we are trying so hard to avoid.

Madam President,

Dear colleagues,

In two months we will have elections. Presidential elections. Each and every one of us will go to the polls to decide what his and her future will be. What the future of our children and grandchildren will be. What the future of our country will be.

This is a collective decision, but one that stems from the individual participation of each and every one of us. Therefore, in elections there is also an individual responsibility. The outcome of the elections is determined by how each individual perceives this responsibility to be.

Whether people go to vote and what they vote for.

Citizens must go to vote so that others do not decide in their name.

Citizens must cast their vote consciously.

But what does that mean?

It means knowing not only who to vote for, but what he/she is actually voting for.

In two presidential elections, in 2013 and 2018, the majority of citizens elected Anastasiades on the basis of a programme that did not commit him so much. Pledges became broken promises and, as always, the narrative “they are all to blame” is cited.

Citizens are therefore called upon to judge the credibility, consistency, honesty and ethics of each candidate and then make their choice. Otherwise they will vote for one thing and get something else eventually. After all, we have been experiencing this for ten years in a row!

People should judge positions and proposals. Not the ones that are being put forward now because some people change colours during the election, adapt and subsequently tell people what they want to hear.

Let citizens judge the long-standing positions of candidates and the parties that support them.

Let them judge their timeless presence and behaviour.

Cower is not a bidding war concerning the allocation of Cabinet positions. Namely, who offers more Ministerial and other posts/jobs to whom.

Power is not what each political force secretly and away from the spotlight agrees to serve petty-party agendas and calculations.

Power, which determines the lives of all of us, is with a national and social agenda to judge and be judged.

This is how AKEL is marching towards the elections. With determination for real change which the country needs. This change that 2/3 of society declare they want in opinion polls.

As Einstein brilliantly said, you cannot change situations and solve a problem when you keep using the same materials.

In our case too, you can’t change things if a candidate comes to power:

• who declares himself satisfied with the current governance,
• who declares himself to be a continuator of this government,
• who declares that this government is not responsible for corruption and for the problems facing the country and its citizens.

Things cannot be changed by those who belatedly project solutions when for ten years they have not only not solved problems, but have been part of them.

They cannot now backtrack and conceal the denigrating terms the government ruling forces were calling nurses and teachers when they asserting their rights and demands.

Those who supported the government in everything cannot and will not change things. They provided cover to the government on everything. They were from start to finish its main cog or initiator of policies and dogmatic associates.

The change proposed by AKEL begins with the election of a President who:

• Should be honest so that people know what they are voting for.
• Be truly and not falsely immaculate and should be untainted, so that he can combat corruption.
• Be ethical and aware of the grave responsibilities he assumes towards the country and the people and to take them on, and not shift responsibilities on others.
• Be at the forefront and not just engage in domestic management of issues when our country is being shamed internationally.
• To elaborate and table specific proposals and not to hide.
• To put the economy on solid foundations so that it has prospects and not to confine himself or encourage “get-rich-quick” predation and circumstantial profit.
• To be socially sensitive, to understand the anxieties, aspirations and problems citizens face and try to solve them.
• Be ready once elected to take initiatives to resume the talks from where they had remained at Crans Montana so that we can go the ‘last mile’ to arrive at a solution on the agreed basis of Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation.
• Act for the benefit of the many, not for the privileged few.

It is on the basis of all this that we took our decision to support the candidacy of Andreas Mavroyiannis.

His entire political record and career in public life is in line with all of the above.

Dear colleagues,

I began my speech by saying that today’s debate is an opportunity for a comprehensive assessment of the ten-year Anastasiades – DISY government. So, inevitably, I had to talk about the past.

But it is no coincidence that I chose to close by referring to the forthcoming elections and what is really at stake: change.

AKEL’s conviction is that this is precisely what citizens expect from us: to support a credible governance proposal on the future of our country.

Because the future is where the challenges lie.

Because the future is where the young generation’s anxieties look for support.

We feel it is our historic responsibility to wage the battle to restore our country’s moral authority.

To restore the relationship of trust between executive power and society.

To have a state that does not trouble, but helps and supports its citizens. To make them happy.

That is precisely why we are ready to sign a new social contract that will ensure a promising future for our children and grandchildren.

Cyprus can!

It has the talent.

It has the dynamism.

It has the potential.

Let’s invest in them!