Last-ditch bid to heal Disy rift

THE DISY political office is meeting with President Clerides this morning in an effort to heal the rift within the ruling party over the President’s reshuffle decisions.

Party leader Nicos Anastassiades has banished deputy Prodromos Prodromou from the political office for his public criticism of last week’s reshuffle.

Prodromou and fellow dissenter Demetris Sillouris, also a Disy deputy, have expressed concerns that too many cabinet positions were given to junior government partners the United Democrats (UD).

The new Health Minister, Frixos Savvides, and the new government spokesman, Michalis Papapetrou, are both from George Vassiliou’s UD. Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous, also a UD man, kept his post in the reshuffle while Vassiliou heads the island’s EU accession talks team.

Prodromou and Sillouris fear granting so much power to the UD suggests Clerides is abandoning his hard-line Cyprus problem policy in favour of the more moderate approach favoured by Vassiliou. Clerides ousted Vassiliou from power in 1993 on the back of promises to take a firmer line in settlement negotiations.

Anastassiades has vigorously dismissed these suggestions and has attacked chief rebel Prodromou, charging him with “parroting” opposition party rhetoric.

Prodromou has hit back at Anastassiades by accusing him of trying to suppress free expression within Disy.

As the spat between the two party heavyweights became more and more acrimonious, both party vice-chairman Panayiotis Demetriou and deputy Rikkos Erotokritou tried, with little success, to intercede to heal the rift.

Today’s planned top-level meeting seems the last chance to restore unity and mend the party’s image.

Prodromou, despite his banishment, is expected to attend, but Sillouris yesterday signalled his intention to boycott the meeting.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.