What currently dominates the minds of our political leadership is not the possibility of significant developments in the Cyprus issue, but everyone’s plans for 2028
It was in early May when President Christodoulides revealed in an interview with Alpha that dramatic developments were on the horizon regarding the Cyprus issue. He even referred to the possibility of the United Nations submitting a comprehensive peace plan before the end of the year. To confirm these significant developments, our side essentially announced a new informal five-party meeting “around late July or early August.” These predictions have not yet been confirmed. Nor have the expectations regarding what might emerge on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Ankara.
But that is not the issue. The issue is this: if the President did indeed anticipate—or is anticipating—dramatic developments in the Cyprus issue, why does he seem more concerned with the 2028 presidential election? After all, he himself was heard saying that “his pre-election planning began on the night of the parliamentary elections.” And if the President did indeed alert political leaders to the possibility that we might face historic dilemmas, why did they, too, begin to enter the presidential race? Averof Neophytou, in his social media posts, echoed the assessment of impending developments and even stated that he would stand by the President if he handled the situation correctly. And yet he assembled a campaign team and entered the race within the party to secure the nomination. Anita Dimitriou did the same. And AKEL, which is supposed to have the Cyprus issue as its top political priority, is gearing up for the presidential race by—in the first phase—stepping up its opposition rhetoric.
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The recent clashes over the Raouna and Paschalidis issues smack more of pre-election posturing than of ordinary political disagreements. The same goes for the President’s attempt to “win over” DIKO and poach voters from DISY.
So let’s not kid ourselves. What dominates the minds of our political leadership today is not the possibility of significant developments in the Cyprus issue, but everyone’s plans for 2028. And while this reality is evident domestically, it is far more apparent to the external actors involved in our problem. After all, in a serious country facing existential threats, one would expect partisan and personal ambitions to be put on hold in the face of this major goal. Not only did this not happen, but it has firmly lit the fuse of the pre-election period, which will set the domestic front ablaze starting in September.
It is obvious that the President attempted yet another public relations maneuver intended to build on his admittedly successful EU presidency. The reasoning was roughly that we need a new narrative as the presidency comes to an end. This keeps the spotlight on the President of the Republic and prevents opponents from launching a premature election campaign.
In Cyprus, however, for decades now, the dominant issue has not been how to break the deadlock on the Cyprus problem, but who will be in power. That’s this reason, no one has ever worked with the same passion to prepare society for what might emerge from the Cyprus issue and how prepared we need to be for the possibility of a new social order. So, by the end of the year we may have a UN peace plan, according to the President, but what the Cypriot citizen is witnessing is the posturing between the President and DISY, AKEL-DISY, and between the President and AKEL over other, less important issues. All of this, of course, as part of everyone’s effort to craft their pre-election narrative.
At the end of the day, our—otherwise—"national problem" occupies a much smaller share of substantive thought and energy in the minds of our leadership. Our entire leadership.
