DIKO leader Marios Garoyian cracked the whip yesterday, warning party cadres point-blank that insubordinate behaviour would no longer be tolerated.
The party’s Executive Bureau convened in an extraordinary meeting to discuss three items: the need for ‘a uniform political language’, the need for a ‘restructuring’, and the need to clean up the party’s image of insularity and internal bickering.
The most incendiary issue – the party’s continued participation in the government coalition – was left off the agenda. Its inclusion would almost certainly have led to a showdown.
Garoyian’s proposal before the Executive Bureau effectively boiled down to a strategy for managing the party’s outlook, shattered by the conflicting opinions voiced over the last weeks and months.
The DIKO boss was blunt, speaking of irresponsible behaviour on the part of certain party members (which he did not name).
“How do you expect the media to react when daily we offer them a reality show?” he said in his opening remarks before the Executive Bureau.
“DIKO is not a public relations tool, nor is it there to serve personal ambitions. Those who seek publicity should seek it elsewhere.”
Garoyian said that from now on he would be “implacable” on all those who put their own interests before the party’s, warning: “Anyone who engages in this sort of behaviour shall put themselves outside the party.”
His proposal was adopted by 21 votes to eight, with one abstention.
Garoyian called yesterday’s session of the Executive Bureau after simmering tensions within the party boiled over, precipitated by an escalating personal attack against the President by DIKO deputy Nicholas Papadopoulos.
Papadopoulos has been accusing Christofias of giving away too much in the ongoing Cyprus talks. He has come down hard on the President for the latter’s readiness to negotiate a rotating presidency, the continuance of Turkish guarantees and Turkish settlers.
The severity and intensity of the attacks has become something of an embarrassment to the DIKO leadership, the senior partner of Christofias’ ruling AKEL party. In a decision last June, DIKO said it would stick with the coalition despite any disagreements on the Cyprus negotiations.
The criticism of Christofias has brought to the surface the strain between the moderates and the hawks. Despite being critical of the President’s handling of the negotiations, the party leadership has been careful not to go overboard. But that strategy has been left in tatters following Papadopoulos’ continual outbursts against Christofias.
Seen as the mouthpiece of DIKO’s die-hard cadres, Papadopoulos has voiced several grievances with Christofias, such as the fact the party has been left out of the Greek Cypriot negotiating team.
At a tκte-a-tκte with Christofias last Thursday, Garoyian is said to have reassured the President of DIKO’s willingness to stay in the government camp. The two men could meet again this week.
In comments on Sunday, Garoyian asked Christofias to withdraw his proposal to the Turkish Cypriot side for a rotating presidency, but rushed to add that he was not posing any ultimatums or seeking to undermine the President.
There were few fireworks yesterday at the Executive Bureau, despite a build-up of rhetoric over the weekend.
In an interview with Politis published Sunday, DIKO bigwig and Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou – seen as siding with the moderate faction – lamented the fact his party had lost all credibility as a result of the cacophony of views expressed.
Kyprianou was abroad on official state business in Brussels yesterday and did not attend the meeting of the Executive Bureau. But a speech he had prepared was read out at the session, where he called for an end to the dissent.
At the other end, party deputy Andreas Angelides told Phileleftheros that he would back a proposal for DIKO to withdraw from the government coalition, if ever it was put on the table.
Meanwhile ruling AKEL warned DIKO that patience had its limits. In comments made to Simerini, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou noted that this “situation cannot go on forever,” while AKEL MP Stavros Evagorou posed a quasi-rhetorical question, wondering how far DIKO was willing to take matters.
