“WE RISK losing all seriousness,” Demetris Christofias proclaimed yesterday, dismissing Ioannis Kasoulides’ invitation for a televised, three-way debate on January 16, focusing exclusively on the Cyprus problem.
Kasoulides yesterday sent the invitation to both the AKEL Chairman and President Tassos Papadopoulos.
Two televised debates have already been arranged for January 24 and February 14.
Commenting further, Christofias added that his camp, “would not even mind four debates if need be, but we should not be drawn into a bidding war via cunning tricks such as these, for we risk losing all seriousness.”
With the campaign swinging into top gear, AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou said he would “opt to bypass” Papadopoulos’ remarks that certain political figures were trying to pass themselves off as constitutional experts.
And the Vice-Chairman of the European Party, Stelios Americanos, lambasted Christofias’ campaign staff after they accused Papadopoulos of playing language games regarding the content of the phrase “bi-zonal, bi-communal federation”. He wondered: “Since when did people stop caring about the content of a solution?”
Moving away from the Cyprus problem, DISY Vice-Chairman Averoff Neophytou attacked what has grandiosely been called the “second myth” propagated by the government, namely, that citizens today have more money.
“The truth of the matter is that citizens today are borrowing more than ever before, the result being that the Cypriot household is the most in debt in Europe,” owing an average of €70,000.
EDEK Vice-Chairman and Spokesman for the Papadopoulos campaign, Marinos Sizopoulos riposted that Neophytou has assumed the role of a “great alchemist” in an attempt to challenge EU reports on the Cyprus economy.
“Fortunately, the truth about the Cyprus economy is recognised by the EU and admitted by the public,” he said.
“Electioneering should have limits,” Americanos added in response to the claim by the Kasoulides camp that the public deficit has increased by five billion euros when in fact hard data provided by the Finance Ministry proves otherwise.
Americanos’ phrase is one that will probably be heard all too often over the next weeks, albeit, regrettably, rarely heeded.
Finance Minister Michalis Sarris came out later in the afternoon, offering clarifications to clear the air. He expressed his “surprise” at Neophytou’s claims, attributing them to “a misunderstanding” and to the fact that “they have not systematically analysed the economic data. Following these clarifications, I believe that the matter can bear no more discussion.”
Sizopoulos also fired off a series of questions for the Christofias camp, such as how they will urge the Turkish Cypriots to break away from Turkey, whether they still insist on the position that the Annan plan would have successfully reunited the island and whether Christofias still believes that Cyprus should not have adopted the euro on January 1.
Meanwhile, the Free Citizens Movement, which supports the Kasoulides candidacy, has spoken out against the vast amount of spending believed to have been undertaken by Papadopoulos for political advertising.
They argue that such practices are consistent with the political philosophy of someone who believes that propaganda can outshine the truth.
