The government bears heavy responsibilities

Statement by AKEL General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou

25 July 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

We would like to express our thanks and gratitude to the firefighters, forest firefighters, local community leaders and authorities, volunteer groups, and everyone who fought the flames with self-sacrifice and self-denial.

We express our grief for the loss of human lives. We also express our sorrow for the loss of property, the efforts of a lifetime of people who keep our countryside alive.

Right now, it is important that we all actively support all those affected by the fires so that the damage can be repaired quickly and life can return to normal as much as possible. For us, this is the responsible thing to do. The government has the primary and decisive responsibility in this regard.

AKEL and the People’s Movement of the Left will continue to stand by the residents and victims of the devastating fires, as we have done from the very beginning.

Today, we speak bearing in mind the 124 square kilometres of burned land, a shocking tragedy that has revealed the image of a defenceless state. This is despite the grandiose statements made even very recently by government officials that this year we are “better prepared and stronger than ever” to deal with any fires. The tragedy has disproved these statements and exposed the government’s incompetence, which it is trying to conceal by engaging in communication tricks.

I want to stress that the government cannot hide from its responsibilities. Responsibilities must be identified, assigned, and assumed. Society cannot tolerate any more words. We will not permit anyone to shirk their responsibilities, because responsibilities do exist and they are indeed very serious, despite the fact that Ministers and other government officials, with their interventions and statements from the very first hours of the tragedy, have not only refused to take on any responsibilities, but have shifted them elsewhere. This angers society even more.

On the initiative of AKEL, a joint meeting of the Parliamentary Internal Affairs, Agriculture and Environment Committees has been scheduled to convene in order to discuss responsibilities, but also the many issues that have arisen. We will discuss why we have arrived at this situation and how the state should support the affected areas and their residents. And, of course, we will monitor very closely what is being done towards this end.

25.7.2025