PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias’ verbal attack against coalition partner EDEK has left the socialist party reeling.
The party’s deputy president, Koullis Mavronicolas, said EDEK felt “degraded” by Christofias’ statements and was unaware the President felt this way.
On Monday, Christofias told a TV interview on the CyBC that “certain political figures, even the presidents of coalition parties, are taking stances that make you wonder whether they are coalition or opposition”.
He added, “Criticism by the parties that participate in the government sometimes surpasses the deontological limits”.
This incensed EDEK, with Mavronicolas making his party’s feelings on the matter clear to Alithia newspaper yesterday.
The former Defence Minister said this was the first time EDEK had heard complaints about the way it was exercising its policies.
“The party is frustrated following President Christofias’ statements,” he added. “We feel that it was a statement, which didn’t have a previous history to justify it. No complaints had been expressed previously, or at least we didn’t hear any complaints by the Presidential Palace regarding statements or stances of our members or stances of the parties that participate in the government, to justify what was said by the President.”
Mavronicolas wished to remind Christofias that EDEK and ruling party AKEL had very similar views during the previous government.
“We feel degraded,” he pointed out. “He [Christofias] is being unfair to us. For a start, we believe that the President should show a certain amount of generosity. Coming out and making this kind of statement to the media is wrong.”
Mavronicolas continued, “He should already have discussed this with the parties at least 10 times, before announcing his position publicly. I would like to remind him that we have participated in other governments where there were huge differences between the coalition parties, but they still managed to operate smoothly without any problems.”
But Mavronicolas’ comments were contradicted by Yiannakis Kolokasides, member of the AKEL political office.
“To begin with, I feel that EDEK is wrong to complain, because when one listens to statements by the party’s members, it makes one wonder whether they are part of the government or the opposition,” said Kolokasides.
He added that it was acceptable for coalition parties to maintain their right to criticism, but it was wrong for their opinions to confuse the public.
“Of course we don’t demand that they join AKEL or have the exact same opinions as AKEL, but I think it is their political and even moral obligation – seeing that they participate in the government – to also have something nice to say about the government that they are part of,” the AKEL political member explained. “From there on , I believe that the President is discussing the problems with the parties’ political leaders. Besides, there are ministers in the government that represent these parties, therefore there is a line of communication with the parties through them.”
Making it clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the President, Kolokasides added: “I understand that the President discussed these issues personally with the coalition parties’ leaders. From there on, I would like to remind [EDEK] that during Tassos Papadopoulos’ government, the only party that strongly and actively supported the government was AKEL, even though there were a few things it had a different opinion on.”
