‘Broken promises’ on National Council

OPPOSITION leader Nicos Anastassiades said yesterday he had received a letter from President Tassos Papadopoulos on DISY’s withdrawal from the National Council.

Anastassiades said his party’s pullout from the Council, the advisory body to the President on the Cyprus issue, had been for good reasons, and that those reasons still stood.

DISY said in February it saw no reason to take part in the National Council, given the body did not meet its primary purpose, which is the formulation of a policy strategy on the Cyprus problem.

Anastassiades held the government and Papadopoulos personally responsible for the fact the Council had degenerated into “a source of gossip and leaks”, he said.

He said Papadopoulos consistently failed to keep the party updated on the Cyprus problem, claiming that they relied on information from abroad to stay abreast of developments.

Another gripe has been that the President and his aides frequently distorted positions aired by DISY during sessions. DISY said it was suspending its participation in the body indefinitely, in the hope that “remedies” would be taken to improve its functioning.

Yesterday, he said pre-election promises by Papadopoulos to do just that had not been met.

He said those promises were “still just promises”.

“We don’t ask for anything more than for the President to keep his promises so that the National Council can function properly,” said Anastassiades.

“Then and only then will we consider our presence in Council possible.”
Anastassiades said he would respond to Papadopoulos’ letter reminding him of those promises.

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.