– Sunday's Videos
– Who does Herzog “love”?
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
– Eirini “flirts” with Odysseas
– When the Egyptians came back…
Good morning, everyone. Did you know about the organ harvesting that’s been causing such a stir since Mazonakis’s death? Personally, I didn’t. From what I’ve heard, though, there are many… well-known figures on the island who visit these kinds of “clinics” in Cyprus, Athens, and abroad. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices, which sometimes turn out to be tragic.
• Let’s leave medical matters to the experts and move on to politics. It’s been an eventful week. On Saturday, the bombshell about the President’s limousine broke, and all Mr. Christodoulides could say was that he knew nothing about it. We thought he was better at communications, but here he slipped up. What does it mean to “know nothing” about a decision that went through his own ministry? That’s why he rushed the very next day (on Sunday) to put together a video about new child allowances! Which hadn’t even gone through the cabinet, and no one in the civil service had a clue. That’s why, when people called to find out, the poor civil servants replied that no one had informed them. Seriously, are we being serious?
• A frenzy of announcements seems to have gripped the government, in the context of the election campaign that “hasn’t even started yet.” That is why the President—obviously influenced by Mitsotakis’s announcements at the Thessaloniki International Fair—spoke of upcoming projects worth 3.5 billion. This government has a habit of making announcements before they’ve even been discussed and approved by the cabinet. It wasn’t just the President’s bonuses this week; there were also Ioannou’s announcements on housing, which went to the Cabinet the very next day.
• And amid this atmosphere of panic that the President seems to be causing among his associates, everyone has become very touchy and sensitive. If anyone dares to criticize them or say even one word too many, they get angry and up in arms. Calm down, guys—I’m just saying this as a friend—at this rate, you won’t make it through the campaign, which is going to be really rough.
• I don’t really follow this stuff, but I’ve been told that the President is on social media all day long. And he actually “likes” and comments on posts by all sorts of people. Some of whom were surprised when they saw their posts catch the President’s attention. But Averof, on the other hand, isn’t far behind. He bombards his followers daily with his own videos and comments. Just wait—soon they’ll discover AI too, and they’ll wipe us out completely. Although something tells me that AI had a hand in the President’s video for the start of the school year. Somewhere in the music?
• Since I’ve mentioned Averoff, though, the Israeli President’s sudden visit to Cyprus raised a question for me. Did something very serious come up, or did the President find out that this summer Averoff hosted Herzog (who was vacationing in Latsi) at his home and told him not to let his rival snatch the prize from his hands? Since everything is done for the sake of image, we’ve become very suspicious ourselves.
• Averof, though, is quite a character. He appeared on Sigma and said, among other things, that “Cyprus is getting richer but Cypriots are getting poorer,” “we’ve created a two-tier society,” “we have dangerously increased the number of civil servants,” while also taking a jab at the President’s limousine, saying that “elected officials use public funds based on their principles and their sense of accountability.” Otherwise… he’ll stand by the President if a strategic agreement is reached on the Cyprus issue. Stick and carrot—or should we just sit this one out?
• On the other hand, you have Odysseas ruling out Andreas Mavroyiannis as a potential AKEL candidate. This comes just as Mavroyiannis (having apparently received some positive signals) is preparing to announce his candidacy. I don’t know what AKEL will ultimately do, but has Odysseas realized that he is no longer in a position to dictate the terms of the game? He should have realized this after the parliamentary election debacle that ingloriously put an end to his grand ambition of running unopposed in the 2028 presidential election. You might say he still has Irini, who’s working against Mavroyiannis… AKEL, however, has been crunching the numbers over and over, and the numbers just don’t add up for him in a runoff against Mavroyiannis. That’s why the need to “find a new Vasiliou” is coming up again. But he has to speak Greek well…
• “DIKO took him,” wrote “Alithia” on Friday, referring to Nikolas Papadopoulos following statements by two DIKO ministers in support of Christodoulides. Did Christodoulides take DIKO from him, or did Nikolas take half the government from him? In any case, this back-and-forth between the President and DIKO has confused Nikolas so much that it would be very difficult for him to refuse to support Christodoulides. Unless, of course, Marios Karoyian offers him a way out—though I see him leaning toward Christodoulides.
• Since we left this unresolved last week, let’s wish the new EDEK president, Sofia Christodoulou Makri, every success—she literally swept the party’s internal elections. And we’d humbly advise her to steer clear of the embrace being sought by Pheidias Panagiotou, who thinks he represents the new generation of politicians. She shouldn’t expose herself the way a former minister—who advises him on electricity issues—is about to.
• The President’s decision to include an Egyptian military contingent in the October 1 parade was a great success! A response, he says, to Turkey’s actions. However, the last time Egyptian commandos came to Cyprus, it turned into a bloodbath. It was in 1978, following the murder of Egyptian journalist Youssef El-Sebai by two armed Palestinians and the hostage-taking of others on a Cyprus Airways flight. The Egyptians’ attempt to free the hostages by secretly arriving at Larnaca Airport resulted in a clash with the National Guard, leaving 15 Egyptians dead and several wounded on both sides. The two events are unrelated, but this serves to teach younger generations about certain moments in history.
Have a good Sunday. Don’t miss the new meeting between Christodoulides and Erciyuman this week. That way, you’ll still have the sense that the Cyprus issue exists.
