– What else are we going to hear, for heaven’s sake!
– DIKO is looking for a “third way”
– The Great Show of the Cyprus Issue
– Our “strict” Legal Service
Have a good day. Well, we’ve had it here. Just when we think we’ve seen it all, along come a special envoy from Tornari and a presidential candidate from Kenevezos, and we realize we haven’t seen anything yet. Especially in this election campaign, it’s certain that we’ll reach the height of Cypriot absurdity. And we have a full 17 months ahead of us!
• Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos attributed Tornaritis’s appointment to the need to “strengthen our position in countries participating in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.” And since he himself tends to prefer more “trendy” destinations, officials at the Ministry decided to assign the Asia and Africa region to Tornaritis. Djibouti must be the new envoy’s first assignment, since, as I’ve been told, we have a problem there. Burkina Faso, on the other hand, is much more friendly and can wait. My God, what are we hearing!
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
• In any case, the President is dangerously close to becoming a Machiavelli-like figure. He has managed to throw DISY into disarray more than Averof has ever managed to do to date, while masterfully co-opting DIKO by bringing nearly half its leadership into the government. These maneuvers are by no means coincidental; on the contrary, they reveal a strategy to weaken the leaderships of both parties ahead of the presidential election. Who said politics has moral boundaries?
• Things are certainly heading toward a breakup within DISY. Anita has rested on her laurels from the parliamentary election victory and set her sights so high for 2028 that she risks losing the party, but at DIKO, they’re literally up in flames. Especially Nicolas and those around him—the mere mention of Christodoulides sends them into a frenzy. That is why, behind the scenes, the scenario of a “third candidate” in collaboration with DISY has been circulating intensely in recent days. They believe this is the only option that will break the deadlock between the two parties and block Christodoulides’ path. But here’s the thing: isn’t Nikolas having a hard time “coming up with” a new candidate? He’s already exhausted his “creativity” on Christodoulides for 2023.
• Something about all this must have caught Kyriakos Kenevezos’s attention, and he made sure to put his name on the table. And with the argument, apparently, “I’ll bring you the DIPA, too.” In any case, those who heard or read the rumor treated it more as a joke.
• Let’s set aside the presidential speculation and turn to the major national issue that takes precedence, as Averoff tells us every day. A high-stakes game is being played here. The President waited until his last meeting (before New York) to present 19 full proposals to Erhurman! He didn’t have time in the previous meetings, but now that he’s found the time, he’s managed to do it. And he’ll go to Guterres to tell him, “See, I did the job you assigned me; it’s the other guy who’s playing games”… And he seems to think Guterres will believe him.
• Indicative of the presidential office’s intentions is the indirect urging by the President’s aides to journalists not to travel to New York because “there won’t be anything special.” Meanwhile, these are the very same people who had been bombarding us all summer long with talk of “historic developments” and who were celebrating because the President’s policy was the one that brought the UN Secretary-General to Cyprus. And they’re the same people who are leaking to CNA and other media outlets that EU envoy Raffaele Fito will discuss the Cyprus issue in Ankara and Athens, even though the man was in Portugal and had no idea. Enough with the PR stunts. At least leave the Cyprus issue out of them.
• And since communication is one thing and substance is another, let’s mention just two (this time) examples of the gap between words and deeds: Does the President remember what he said about air conditioning in schools by 2023? “Within three years, all schools will have air conditioning.” That timeline was supposed to end this year. But what did he tell us this year? “By the end of my term, all schools will have air conditioning.” So now we’re looking at 2028. Also, does the President recall the triumphant tone with which the Advisory Council announced appointments to semi-governmental organizations? A revolution in transparency and the elimination of cronyism. Among the most recent appointments, there were 21 individuals who were not included on the Advisory Council’s list. That is, those selected by the President. However, according to the Advisory Council’s operating framework, the President and the Cabinet were required to publicly justify why they made these choices. They did not do so. It is worth noting that four of the individuals appointed to the Advisory Council had not even submitted an application and were therefore never included on the Advisory Council’s lists. And so, the great revolution in the fight against cronyism has taken on an “advisory role,” as Deputy Minister to the President Irini Piki said of the Advisory Committee.
• The overhaul of the Presidential Office, however, continues. Journalists who visit it often tell me that Ms. Filippa never stops adding touches to spruce up the space. She seems confident about the new five-year term.
• We warned you, Mr. (former) Minister. Stop playing games with Phidias and using him to push your agenda, but you didn’t listen to us. Now you’d better deal with the problem of your source of wealth and let Pheidias make his own little videos.
• With all that going on, we didn’t have time to address—as thoroughly as we should have—the dangerous ramifications in Cyprus of methods that appear to have cost Giorgos Mazonakis his life. Since 2022, there have been complaints and investigations into a similar “clinic” here as well, but the Legal Service—as it stated—did not find sufficient evidence to build a case. It made a similar statement in the case of the “Black Van.” This same Legal Service that shows such strictness and adherence to the law toward a grieving father who, through a tragic turn of events, lost his child right from his arms in Paphos.
Have a good Sunday. Get ready for “New York Week.” And for Tornaritis’s first trip to Djibouti…
