The government must finally tell the truth

 

Statement of Georgos Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Press Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 6th March 2015, Nicosia

 

AKEL comes back to the huge issue of order raised for the government, which had hidden the truth from the people of Cyprus and the political forces of the fact that the decision taken by President Anastasiades and the Eurogroup in March 2013 for the universal haircut/levy on bank deposits was withdrawn a day after by the Eurozone Finance Ministers through a teleconference.

Given that these days two years will have gone by since those disastrous decisions of March 2013 and with our people continuing to suffer from their consequences and the class character of the anti-social austerity policies of the government of DISY Rally party and Anastasiades, the government and ruling forces are called upon to finally assume the responsibilities of their actions by telling the truth to the Cypriot people.

They should do so by accepting that they deceived the political forces hiding from them that from 4th March 2013 the issue of the haircut on bank deposits for the Popular Bank and the Bank of Cyprus was put on the table; that it is the Anastasiades government that proposed the universal haircut on bank deposits, for which it had even prepared a relevant bill before the Eurogroup meeting of 15th March 2013; that the government deceived the House of Representatives, concealing the fact of the withdrawal of the decision for the horizontal haircut on deposits, forcing the House to take a position on a decision which had already been revoked.

The restoration of the truth about the events of March 2013 is necessary not only as a cleansing act, but also as an essential precondition so that without distractions we can address the enormous challenges facing the country. However to do so requires political courage, which in effect the Anastasiades – Rally party government appears have breached, along with its pre-election pledges.