The DISY president is popular, but who are the people she will rely on to establish herself as the undisputed leader of the party?
The Democratic Rally is in a new phase of introspection as the engines rev up for the 2028 presidential election. An underground battle is unfolding over the nomination, with support for Nikos Christodoulides remaining within the party, circles aligned with Averof Neophytou, and the faction led by Giorgos Pamboridis; meanwhile, the party chair herself has entered the pre-election fray, particularly following the success in the parliamentary elections, the party president herself has also joined the fray.
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The best proof of this is the strengthening of the Council for Monitoring Government Work—an institution established by Anita Dimitriou following her victory in the 2023 intra-party elections. With members in the party’s upper echelons eyeing the Chairperson’s position and the parliamentary caucus not under Ms. Dimitriou’s full control, the Monitoring Council appears to be the President’s vehicle for building a hard-core support base in the event that she ultimately runs for the presidency of the Republic and wins.
Anita Dimitriou’s Difficult Equation
It is a given that, despite her victory in the parliamentary elections and her significant popularity, Anita Dimitriou has not managed to establish herself as an undisputed political figure and the unquestioned leader of DISY. The specter of Nicos Anastasiades—and especially that of Averof Neophytou—continues to loom over her. He is the man who paved the way for her to attain the political positions she holds today. Sources within and around the party indicate that Ms. Dimitriou does not yet have her own strong support bases within the party and among its rank-and-file, despite the assessment that the “Synergistic” base will play it safe by backing the party leadership when the time comes for the internal party contest to nominate a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.
With ambitions within the party varying among its leaders, Annita Dimitriou does not feel secure. The outcome of the parliamentary elections merely put the swords back in their sheaths for the time being, with the party’s rising stars simply preparing to sharpen them in anticipation of the presidential race. Any potential decline in DISY’s poll numbers would expose Annita Dimitriou to a wave of direct challenges.
Anita Dimitriou’s second strong asset—the Speakership of the House of Representatives—appears to be both a strength and a liability. While it gives her the credibility to make a strong bid for the Presidency of the Republic, it also sends the message that DISY’s presidential seat may become vacant in 2028. In the event of a victory in the 2028 presidential election, she will obviously step down from both the Speakership of the House and the leadership of DISY. If she fails to secure the party’s nomination in a potential internal party contest against Averof Neophytou or Giorgos Pamboridis, it will once again demonstrate that her support among the party’s rank-and-file is not sufficient for her to stand as a strong leader. If she fails to advance to the second round, it is also likely that she will experience what Averof Neophytou experienced in 2023. Even if she manages to make it to the second Sunday of the presidential election, a potential defeat would shake DISY’s confidence in its ability to contest and win battles for power, which is also likely to put her in a very difficult position.
These factors are being taken into account by those who have their sights set on the DISY presidency, a group that includes nearly the entire party leadership, even though not all of them aspire to take Anita Dimitriou’s place. One need only consider who makes up the top tier of DISY’s leadership hierarchy to understand why Ms. Dimitriou does not take support for her as a given. Efthymios Diplaros and Giannis Karousos are considered two of the individuals eyeing the DISY presidency, while parliamentary spokesperson Dimitris Dimitriou opposed Ms. Dimitriou in 2023.
The shadow cabinet: a pillar of power
Anita Dimitriou knows that her dominance over the DISY parliamentary group is not uncontested. This explains, for example, why the Government Work Monitoring Council established by the DISY President does not include anyone from the party’s leadership hierarchy, nor any member of the parliamentary group. Some of the Council’s members have a ministerial profile, having previously held government posts.
Critics point out that although the Council was a good idea—and an innovation in the country’s political landscape— its creation undermines the party’s collective bodies, which are composed of elected officials. In the corridors of Pindarou Street, it does not go unnoticed that the Council is largely composed of individuals who:
– are part of Anita Dimitriou’s inner circle,
– or whom the Chair seeks, through their appointment, to bring into her sphere of influence,
– or she is attempting to appease their reactions to not having been elected.
A telling example is the fact that individuals who were elected to Parliament and were members of the Council, such as Nikoleta Konstantinou, resigned from it to make room for the appointment of a new member. Incidentally, this example also works in reverse, in the sense that the Council may have served as a platform for promoting officials. At the same time, it is worth noting the discrepancy between the number of Council members and that of the Cabinet: 23 versus 17. Certain portfolios do not exist as ministries or deputy ministries, such as entrepreneurship or transparency and anti-corruption.
Others who are currently serving or have served on the Council have found themselves caught in the tug-of-war between Nikos Christodoulides and Annita Dimitriou, such as Tina Pavlou, who was recently appointed Deputy Minister of Social Welfare. One such case is Michalis Ioannidis, who, in addition to his portfolio, also took on the coordination of the Council to act as its head in the absence of—and alongside—the party President. One would expect that, since leadership of the Council is not the exclusive prerogative of the party president, the coordinator would be a close confidant of Anita Dimitriou; but this is disputed within party circles in the case of Ioannidis.
The question regarding Anita Dimitriou is not whether the “Alarm” shadow cabinet meets international and traditional standards, but whether it will succeed, and whether it will be sufficient to fulfill the purpose for which it was actually established. It must be taken for granted that this is a mechanism to support the DISY President through the storms ahead, and her only real pillar of support to strengthen her position within the party. Anita Dimitriou hopes or expects that the “Synergistic” base, which historically rallies around the faction’s leader, will do the same in her case if she ultimately decides to run.
