The General Secretary of AKEL S.Stefanou: The people want change not in faces, but of substance and direction

 

“Society is tired of living in misery, economic and social insecurity caused by the government policies of social insensitivity”

9 October 2022

A powerful AKEL gives strong hope and prospects for the country, noted the Party’s General Secretary, Stefanos Stefanou, on Sunday at the 27th AKEL Nicosia – Kyrenia District Organisation Conference, calling on party members to support Andreas Mavroyiannis’ independent candidacy in the presidential elections for “a change of substance”.

In his speech to the Conference, held at the Latsia Municipal Theatre, Stefanos Stefanou, among other things, referred to the decision of the party’s regular Congress held last year on how AKEL “should close in a dynamic way” the first century of its struggles and interventions, since 1926, and open a second century “with the same strength, the same vigour and the same heroism”, because, he said, the country and the people need a strong AKEL. “A powerful AKEL gives strong hope and perspective for the country,” he said.

It is precisely  for this reason, the General Secretary of AKEL said, that the decision was approved to convene a statutory Congress in order to seriously discuss how to renew, how to add new elements to Party’s political and organisational work and furthermore to add new elements to the old and tried and tested forms of organisation and actions, as well as new ways “to take our own voice and position to society and invite people to join us, to mobilise society so that we can confront anti-social policies and put forward our own positions and proposals”.

S.Stefanou said that the day after next Wednesday, the party’s Central Committee will discuss and approve a document that will form the roadmap for this discussion to culminate in the statutory Congress. The timeframe set is for the fall of 2023, he added.

As regards the course of the Party, the General Secretary of AKEL said that on the one hand, we need to assess the very hard work that is being done, “the very important contribution and intervention that we have, in society for the country and the people because we should not minimise and underestimate it despite the problems that we face, but at the same time, we need to look very seriously at how we deal with the various problems that we have in the movement and in the Party so that we can confront them and open the perspective for tomorrow.”

These problems, S.Stefanou said, have to do with the new social and economic realities and conditions that exist not only in Cyprus but in the whole world and especially in Europe. “The far-right movements in Europe are growing dynamically because they exploit the fertile ground created by the anti-social policies implemented by the Right which determines the course of Europe. At the same time, we see that populism is entrenched in people’s consciences.”

Referring to the presidential elections and the need, he said, of citizens for change, Stefanos Stefanou spoke of “the huge political task of winning” in the presidential elections. He said AKEL had never waged elections to lose them “but is waging the noble fight” to win them. He also said that the presidential elections “will decide the course of the country”, and that the people and society want a change not of persons, but of substance and direction, “because they are tired of living in misery, economic and social insecurity caused by the government’s policies of social insensitivity”.

The General Secretary of AKEL also said that when citizens are suffering, when thousands of people are wondering how they will make ends meet, how they will have essential necessities at home, how their children will be able to study and meet the necessary needs, the government ruling forces are “giving excuses and do not care” because, he said, they live in a parallel virtual world, very different from that of the overwhelming majority of the people.

Speaking about the policies and practices of the current government, S.Stefanou referred to the issue of the ‘golden’ passports scandal and said that “transparency and accountability have been abandoned”, asking when the government will give a reply to the question of the issue of surveillance/wiretapping, which is being widely discussed in the European Parliament and in many European countries, whereas in Cyprus, despite the fact that AKEL is asking questions on a daily basis, “the government ruling forces consider the whole issue closed”.

On the Cyprus problem, the General Secretary of AKEL said that we are now a just breath away from Turkey fulfilling its strategic goal of partition “and the government ruling forces are not worried”. He added that “all they are basically doing is handling the issue to serve expediencies for domestic consumption, seeking to convince people that there can be no solution with this Turkey and this Turkish Cypriot leadership.” Furthermore, he noted that “the government ruling forces also had the same apathy and approach” when Mustafa Akinci was the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, and that back then they “wasted” four years until the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community had changed.

Referring to the candidates for the Presidency, Nikos Christodoulides and Averof Neophytou, he said that “it is an insult to people’s intelligence” that they can bring change, since they were part of the decisions and policies of the Anastasiades Government, and called on the people to reflect on whether the Government did what it promised before the 2013 and 2018 elections.

On the candidacy of Andreas Mavroyiannis, he said that there is a choice before the people “with the main support of a patriotic, historical party such as AKEL”, for a “truly independent candidate, who is honest, sincere and clean, crucial important elements for the conditions which the government has created, who has all the knowledge, experience both inside and outside Cyprus and who has the ability to rally and unite the forces of all those who really want change”. Stefanos Stefanou called on the people to contribute towards realising this “enormous effort”, noting that everyone has a role to play.