Local issues may have dominated the Euro election campaign, but a few new faces have ensured real colour amid all the usual platitudes
THE other day, around the corner from our establishment’s premises, I overheard (eavesdropped on) an easygoing conversation between two middle-aged fellows.
One was asking the other his plans for the first weekend of June. His interlocutor, remotely excited about the topic of discussion, mumbled that he’d take the wife and kids to Protaras. The comment drew an excited and puzzled reaction from the first man, who pursued: “But aren’t you going to vote in the euro elections?” The answer, in the Cypriot vernacular, was unequivocal: “Oi re, ma eisai pellos?” (No man, what are you nuts or something?).
No doubt the campaign for Euro Elections 2009 has been somewhat bland, but the conventional wisdom of blaming it on our provincialism tells only half the story. Looking at the local turnout in the 2004 euro elections, it was actually quite high compared to other European nations and to the average EU turnout. There has to be more to it than meets the eye.
Truth be told, the campaign has had a few stand-out moments. A major talking point is the exposure given to DISY candidate Andreas Pitsillides, a young theologian-turned politician. The image of the candidate looms everywhere, and is especially visible in Nicosia, drawing all kinds of attention.
Sources told the Sunday Mail the candidate’s campaign expenses could be running in the hundreds of thousands of euros. Pitsillides himself has denied being funded by the ultra-wealthy bishopric of Kykkos, of which he is a former employee.
But one commentator, who wished not to be named, remarked: “Yeah right, then he must have won the Lotto or something.”
The omnipresence of Pitsillides has also provoked the ire of communist mouthpiece Haravghi, which ran a tongue-in-cheek editorial urging DISY supporters to vote for their candidates but not Pitsillides. Adopting a siege mentality, Pitsillides retaliated by submitting an advertisement in newspapers calling on the DISY faithful to vote for him en masse in response to the campaign waged against him by Haravghi.
There is also the small matter of AKEL billboards heavily featuring blue, a colour traditionally associated with arch-rivals DISY and with Europe. Has the world gone mad?
Not mad enough. Even Outopos, that oddball revolutionary and free-love advocate, has sadly become something of a cliché. When it comes to election wackiness, we don’t even come close to Greece, where the ecologist party has put ‘Katman’ on its ticket. Katman, as you may or may not know, is an allegedly mentally challenged singer, famous for appearing in various trash TV shows. When recently asked to read out the party manifesto live on television, he would read out the page numbers as well.
“In the international literature, the euro elections are referred to as second-order elections, or proxy elections. The lack of ‘action’ is not endemic to Cyprus,” says Pambos Papageorgiou, a research executive for the European University of Cyprus.
“The name of the game is to score points over your political opponents, as an ‘investment’ for future electoral battles. For the opposition, they will seek to undermine the government as much as possible. Pro-government forces meanwhile will try to boost the administration.”
That the campaign is dominated – yet again – by the Cyprus problem is no shocker, either.
“You hear the usual complaining about how Cypriots are insular, that they think they’re the navel of the world et cetera. But in many other European countries, if not most, the campaigns are also dominated by national themes,” notes Papageorgiou.
A cursory look at some of the lands near us confirms this assertion. A recent item run by the BBC news website noted, for example, how “National concerns appear to overshadow pan-European issues in the run-up to the 4-7 June European Parliament elections.”
In neighbouring Greece, economic scandals, corruption, urban rioting and strikes are at the heart of the campaign, with little airtime given to the so-called ‘European issues’. The ruling conservative New Democracy Party is under severe pressure: it has a one-seat parliamentary majority, making an early general election a real possibility.
Across the Adriatic meanwhile Italians are hotly debating Silvio Berlusconi’s choice of attractive, young ladies with little political experience to stand for the centre-right coalition, People of Freedom (PdL). The Italian prime minister has included former showgirls, a Miss Italy contender and a Big Brother celebrity in his choice of candidates for the European Parliament elections. “Berlusconi’s harem” was the front page headline on the weekly magazine Oggi.
Political analyst Christoforos Christoforou says the manner in which the campaign has been waged is a good indicator of how seriously the parties are taking it.
“Some of the parties got started much later than others. You can see, for instance, that DISY’s campaign has only just rolled into high gear these past couple of weeks. What that suggests is that the preparations are not as meticulous as in national or parliamentary elections.”
The problem, if one could call it that, is that the outcome is taken for granted, added Christoforou. DISY and AKEL are each expected to get their two seats in the European Parliament, with DIKO and EDEK snapping up the remaining two. Why waste precious time and energy when you know what’s coming?
Food for thought: communist AKEL, the ‘euroskeptics’, have mounted a campaign that is actually more Europe-oriented than any of the other parties.
It is also the only party that has set up a dedicated website on the euro elections, outlining in a cohesive way its views on matters such as the economy and labour issues.
AKEL’s slogan “Yes to Europe, but with assertiveness” refers to the belief that one should not give carte blanche to Brussels but that one should get involved with the system so as to improve it.
The other parties have simply crammed their websites with pictures and profiles of their candidates. The central message, if any, is hard to glean.
Christoforou guesses that AKEL has taken things more seriously probably to avoid a repeat of the ‘embarrassment’ of 2004, when they came second behind rivals DISY despite leading in the polls. It could be that the lessons of the past have been learned: get too cocky and you’ll lose.
“And as the ruling party, obviously they want to make the best possible showing, because that has immediate implications about the popularity of the government.”
On the other hand, DISY has been rather laid-back.
“They’ve invested in the assumption that they are the ‘par excellence European party’, and have chosen to focus on personalities. Time will tell whether this will backfire,” offers Christoforou.
DIKO’s is a “NO” campaign – “No to the Turkish guarantees”, “No to concessions”. The message is driven home both in the TV spots and the billboards.
Pambos Papageorgiou thinks the centrist party had little choice but to go for an aggressive approach that would rally the rank-and-file.
“Because they’ve recently been having problems with internal unity, the campaign masterminds opted for a no-holds-barred attack against everyone.”
EDEK’s mantra meanwhile is that the public should endorse them so that Cyprus can send an MEP to the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
“In a way, it does make sense,” says Papageorgiou. “It is important to have a Cypriot MEP in the strongest political grouping in the European Parliament. But it’s also a false dilemma, in the sense that the seat is pretty much guaranteed.”
But romantics are finding it harder to reconcile the concept that domestic power plays are routinely projected onto the euro elections.
For political commentator Louis Igoumenides, the campaign has been “too egotistic, too Cyprus-centric” for his liking.
“All we care about is how Europe can help us solve the Cyprus problem the way we want it to be solved, or how Europe should help us through the economic crisis. Take, take, take: that’s us.”
He concedes that this state of affairs is no surprise, but is quick to point to the mindset of islanders: “The Enlightenment, the preoccupation with ideas that go beyond your narrow circle, has never arrived on our shores. It’s got to do with our history and the fact we haven’t yet matured or evolved from being a colony.”
