CAMPAIGNING took a bitter personal twist yesterday as lieutenants of the two main rival candidates traded acerbic barbs about failed professors, dictionaries, and school desks.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades rejected claims that President Glafcos Clerides had made concessions in the Annan plan on refugees and invited AKEL leader Demetris Christofias to refrain from language that debased the level of election campaigning and make his own suggestions on the Cyprus problem that would not hurt refugees.
Anastassiades censured Christofias’ description of Clerides as a “failed professor who would have his licence revoked by the people” and his suggestion that the President had done enough and it was time for him to go home.
The outspoken DISY chief reminded Christofias that a month ago he was congratulating Clerides for “his correct handling of the Cyprus problem” during the European Union summit in Copenhagen, stressing that as AKEL leader he could say whatever he wanted but as House President he should be careful.
Anastassiades described Christofias’ comments as pure abuse not becoming to the president’s constitutional number two.
And he saved a lashing for DIKO chief Tassos Papadopoulos, who is backed by AKEL, saying he was unfit to be president as a man who had rejected United Nations blueprints for a settlement on several occasions in the past.
Anastassiades said AKEL were Papadopoulos’ “foster parents” who, as the elections drew closer, insisted they would stand next to him and provide the guarantees that he would fall in line with their policy.
The DISY chief promptly received his reply from AKEL spokesman Nicos Katsourides, who in acerbic style pointed out that Anastassiades needed to study his dictionary and return to his school desk.
“When I hear him saying that Christofias is abusing the President in saying he has failed, I think that one needs to take a look at the dictionary and go back to his school desk,” Katsourides said.
He claimed the government camp was insulting the Cypriot people on a daily basis by embarking on a risk-mongering campaign whose theme was that “if it’s not Clerides then we’re lost”.
Katsourides explained that Christofias had congratulated the President for a specific occasion – Copenhagen – during which Clerides, despite advice from his negotiating team, had refused to initial an agreement before Turkish intentions were made clear.
“When we congratulate it’s okay, when we criticise it’s abhorrent,” Katsourides said.
He challenged Anastassiades to silence the opposition and make them apologise 24 hours a day by telling the people that no compromises had been made.
Katsourides said Papadopoulos’ views on the UN plan were no different to Clerides’, adding that it may be hard for Papadopoulos to give his word but when he did, he did not take it back.
Christofias accused the DISY chief of using various arguments in an effort to cling on to power.
He added such behaviour was unprecedented and should be avoided in the name of order and ethics.
“I think the attempt to stay in power, not by Mr. Clerides but by Mr. Anastassiades is evident and he should be more careful,” the AKEL leader said.
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides, who has entered the election fray in earnest, suggested Christofias had been irritated when he made Tuesday’s comments that Clerides could not cut it any more.
The minister wondered if Clerides had been capable in Copenhagen, prompting Christofias’ congratulations.
“Can’t he cut it for a few more months?” he asked.
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.
