DISY’s supreme council yesterday unanimously approved the party’s candidates for the June 13 Euro elections.
The list is made up of deputies Panayiotis Demetriou, Eleni Theoharous, and Lefteris Christoforou, former foreign minister Yiannakis Casoulides, political bureau member Manthos Mavromatis and Tasos Mitsopoulos, the director of the party chief’s office.
During the meeting, party leader Nicos Anastassiades published the letter he sent rebel former DISY chief Yiannakis Matsis on Friday, in which he invited him to lead the party’s list.
In his letter, the DISY chief offered Matsis to include him on the DISY election list, as well as two other members who rejected the Annan plan – Ouranios Ioannides and Eleni Theocharous – and three who supported the ‘yes’ vote.
But in his reply, Matsis, who has already sided with expelled dissident deputies Prodromos Prodromou and Rikkos Erotocritou, listed his conditions for accepting the invitation.
Specifically, he asked from the party’s leadership to drop its current stance on the Cyprus problem and adopt his suggestions concerning the candidates’ list to include Prodromou and Erotocritou.
Matsis also asked Anastassiades to withdraw his complaint to the European Parliament.
Anastassiades has backed down on the complaint to the European Parliament, but there is no question of returning the expelled deputies into the party fold.
Anastassiades’ decision yesterday to withdraw his complaint and publish the letter he had sent Matsis is being seen as a move to avoid a deeper rift in the party and win him points with the DISY faithful, afraid of seeing their party weakened further.
The poor show of support for Matsis and the dissidents during a Friday gathering at a Paphos hotel could be an indication that Anastassiades is succeeding in stemming the dissent.
According to reports, a mere 120 people from the 300 expected attended the gathering, and hotel staff were asked to gather all the empty chairs so the place would not look empty before the cameras.
Just around the corner, Anastassiades chaired a full house – 200 people — in a district meeting that was not open to the general public, reports said.
Before the meeting, Matsis said the only reason he had returned to politics after six years was his disagreement with the official party policy on the Cyprus problem.
From the moment Anastassiades did not adopt this view and had refused to hold an extraordinary congress, he could not accept his invitation to lead the Euro list, Matsis said.
Anastassiades refused to comment, saying he would not reply to the representatives of divisive movements who chose to give a public response to a confidential letter he had sent.
The dissidents list, led by Matsis, includes Prodromou, Erotocritou, Soulla Zavou, Nicos Clerides and Marianna Pelekanou Hadjistefanou.
