Statement by the AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou on the President’s announcement that he will take initiatives to stamp out interwoven interests and corruption
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 31st October 2020, Nicosia
After eight years in power, Mr. Nikos Anastasiades was informed that corruption does exist in our country and he has announced that initiatives will be taken on corruption.
For eight years now, Mr. Anastasiades has not heeded the warnings that were being issued by the EU about the ‘golden passports’ scandal. He did not read the Reports released by the World Bank on the all-European record on corruption which Cyprus has recorded since he took office. He did not listen to the thunderous “Shame on you” addressed to him personally by the former Attorney General. He did not hear his own Minister saying that “we investigated the matter (golden passports) and did not find anything wrong”. He did not accept that we had a problem with golden passports and stated that “we have the strictest criteria in Europe”.
Now that the abscess of corruption has broken and society has erupted, the President of the Republic has decided to announce initiatives to serve communication purposes. But before taking initiatives on corruption, Mr. Anastasiades should answer the following questions:
● In which country based on the rule of law does the President receive a luxury holiday in the Seychelles as a gift from foreign tycoons, which he has granted citizenship to and to all of his family?
● In which country based on the rule of law does the President and his Ministers approve applications for citizenship that are submitted by law firms connected to them?
● Where else in Europe does the President’s family circle and law firm benefit from a program set up by his government?
● In which country based on the rule of law does the President’s close family circle, after receiving privileged information that other citizens didn’t have, take out millions of Euros abroad to escape the consequences of presidential decisions (on the haircut on bank deposits)?
Eight years is a long time, Mr. President, the sample of your presidency is very big. You no longer convince anyone no matter how many communication tricks are employed by your numerous – and highly paid by taxpaying citizens – advisors.
In any case, you’ve left it late. At the same time as you were declaring that you are “innocent and clean”, the European Commission was launching an infringement procedure against Cyprus and the name of our country is being shamed internationally for several years now.
