By Andrew Adamides
THE WRATH of Hillary Clinton is something most people probably wouldn’t want to face – and following zippergate, a certain president has probably had to face rather more of it than anyone would like to.
But in addition to annoying Hillary, has Bill Clinton annoyed the people of Cyprus with his sex, lies and video tape saga?
“Just because he’s a president, he shouldn’t be allowed to just mess around and leave,” said Theodoros Efstathiou, 56.
But he thinks Clinton will stay, and if he goes it’ll only be because he was pushed.
Steven Kyriakides, 78, agrees. “If he goes, he’ll be back as president within five years,” he says, adding that if Clinton does step down, it’ll be because others in the political arena pressure him to do so.
Sex scandals are, he thinks, part of politics, and Clinton “is not the only one.” Kyriakides also thinks that politicians’ illicit affairs should not be out in the open.
And male opinion in other age groups seemed pretty much the same. “It’s just what men do,” said 24-year-old Charalambos Charalambous. “I don’t know if he should stay or go, but only his wife should be angry with him.”
But it takes two to tango, as they say, and what do those of the opposite sex think of Bill and Monica’s not-so-appropriate adventure?
“He shouldn’t stay, he should leave,” said Stella Hadjigeorgiou, 20. “Someone like that who’s in charge of a country should have higher morals. And he lied about it, which makes it 10 times worse.”
She doesn’t think politicians’ sex lives should be media fodder, but does believe that “if it comes out, it should be handled appropriately.”
However, female opinion on the matter does seem somewhat divided. Mary Theodosiou, “twentysomething – early twenties”, said that “at least Clinton does things, he’s not like our politicians who are so boring all they can do is talk forever.”
And should the private lives of Presidents be public knowledge?
“Eh, this is Cyprus,” she says. “In Cyprus everything is public knowledge anyway. But you won’t find any sex scandals, because all politicians do is steal money. If Lewinsky came to them they would fall over from shock.”
