It may seem early, but the battle for the presidential election has already begun, with the major parties already making their first strategic moves on paper.

In the spotlight are the moves by the Democratic Alarm, which—as things stand—will field its own candidate, while Nikos Christodoulides continues to seek allies in his bid for re-election, without knowing whether he will have his biggest supporter from 2023—namely, DIKO—by his side.

And all this while AKEL is searching for a candidate who will achieve what Stavros Malas and Andreas Mavroyiannis failed to do on the previous three occasions. That is, reaching the second round of the presidential election.

“Let’s bring together all those who envision something different, something better for Cyprus and our society.” ^{Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL Secretary-General}

The next step

What remains unclear at this point is whether the time has come for AKEL to unite these forces around its own party candidate, or whether it will go with the tried-and-true model of a non-partisan technocrat.

In any case, according to Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL and its allies share a single goal:

“To do everything in its power to forge the social majority that will bring about progressive change in the country’s governance in the 2028 presidential election.” ^{Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL Secretary-General}

Criticism of ELAM

In his speech, Stefanos Stefanou described the recent parliamentary election results as very good, while at the same time attacking ELAM, accusing it of being an ideologically dangerous far-right party.

A remark that did not go unanswered…

“For them, it’s considered extreme to support the country’s Western orientation, to fight to halt the Islamization of Cyprus, or to resist the absurdity of the ‘woke’ LGBTQI agenda.” ^ELAM

Saying that what Stefanos Stefanou said today about ELAM comes as no surprise.

See the report by Giorgos Chrysanthos