The government must clear the Republic of Cyprus’ name and stop putting powerful economic interests above our country’s interests
Statement of Aristos Damianou, AKEL Political Bureau member
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 29th August 2020, Nicosia
No matter what the government ruling forces may be claiming, Cyprus is facing a serious problem internationally, due to the abuse of the investment for citizenship program and the issuing of ‘golden’ passports to internationally known criminals, corrupt persons and fraudsters.
The EU’s warnings to the Anastasiades-DISY government date back, without however the government ruling forces taking any note. Evidently, powerful economic interests and the greedy feast that was set up are considered to be above the interests of Cyprus. Worst of all is that the government ruling forces are continuing to underestimate people’s intelligence and ignore the damage they are causing to our homeland’s name.
The recent references made by the relevant EU Commissioner to the possibility of measures being taken against the Republic of Cyprus are serious. They complement the complaints and revelations that were preceded by those of the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Transparency International and others – even the by European People’s Party, to which DISY belongs. Al Jazeera was preceded by international news networks such as Reuters press agency and newspapers of world stature in all the major European capitals. Regrettably, Cyprus is being denounced internationally, but the government ruling forces are pretending that it’s nothing serious.
Society and the political parties are setting the following questions that the Anastasiades-DISY government avoids answering:
- How do they intend to clear Cyprus’ name – by attacking the Commission again?
- Are they still claiming that there are no abuses in the golden passports scheme, as the competent Minister of Interior stated a few days ago?
- How did they respond to the warnings Cyprus was receiving?
- Why didn’t they proceed to take timely measures to revoke naturalizations, as the legislation specifies, to reduce the damage to Cyprus?
Of course, political will and determination is demanded to confront the problem – something that is absent from the government’s handlings.
