Aside from the pre-election debate and Averof Neophytou’s announcement, the government wants to keep the focus there, but it is responding to reports on the Cyprus issue by calling on politicians to be careful about the messages they send, as Deputy Government Spokesperson Yiannis Antoniou stated while speaking on the Alpha Kalimera program.
“The President of the Republic was away; he returned on Saturday, and we didn’t have the opportunity to discuss all these issues. We want to stay out of it. These are now purely personal matters, but also purely partisan ones. We really want to stay out of it.”
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“We believe this election campaign is starting far too early, with all that that entails,” adds Mr. Antoniou.
“However, in any case, we have the rights of every citizen and every politician.”
When asked to comment on the scenario involving Annita Dimitriou, Averof Neophytou, and Nikos Christodoulides, he states that he does not want to get into this discussion since we’re still at a theoretical level. “I think we should wait and see how the situation unfolds; then we’ll have plenty of time to discuss it,” he noted.
When asked whether this move by Averof Neophytou and the start of the presidential campaign might accelerate the President’s plans to run again in 2028, he replies that the President will announce his decisions in the first half of 2027.
“Therefore, we stand by the President’s statement, we will respect it, and we will see how things unfold, etc.”
And he responds to references to the Cyprus issue…
“With the utmost respect for Mr. Neophytou and for everyone. Someone who presents himself as the leader of the solution is implying—even if unintentionally—that the rest do not want a solution. Or that they are not striving for a solution to the Cyprus issue. We’ve seen these kinds of things in the past as well. I think it’s counterproductive—at a time when we’re truly fighting to overcome Turkey’s intransigence— to send the message internally that there are politicians who do not want a solution to the Cyprus problem.”
“I think we all heard President Erdoğan at the General Assembly, what he said, etc.; we—especially politicians who claim to care about a solution to the Cyprus problem—must be twice or even three times as careful,” he concludes.
