LEADING the charge against the government yesterday was Archbishop Chrysostomos, who expressed dismay on learning that the Turkish Cypriot regime would be supplying the south with power.
“I’d rather get by with a lantern and flashlight,” the Prelate remarked. “If they had asked me, I would have told them not to bring electricity from the occupied areas or to have electricity given to the Archbishopric.”
He added: “Let’s switch off the air conditioning units, sweat a little, experience some hardship and set aside our comforts. As far as I’m concerned, I have not been using the a/c in my office since that day [when the deal was announced].
The top cleric recalled when a blaze broke out on the Pendadaktilos mountains, confessing that at the time he privately admired the Turkish Cypriots for turning down Greek Cypriot offers to help battle the flames: “I told myself that they have self-respect,” he noted, perhaps hinting that the current government did not.
Speaking to newsmen after the National Council meeting, DIKO leader Marios Garoyian said his party’s concern was that the cooperation with the north should not entail any “direct or indirect recognition of the pseudo-state.”
He added, somewhat philosophically: “The thought that is spinning in my head is how we have managed to get ourselves into this situation, to have to take electricity from the occupied areas. How did we do it?”
Likewise EDEK boss Yiannakis Omirou said he was all but certain that at some point the regime in the north would try to milk political advantage from the current energy crisis.
“It is a sorry state of affairs for the Republic,” said Omirou.
European Party leader Demetris Syllouris went a step further, likening the power deal with the north to “state and national suicide” and hammered the government for “hiding behind private businessmen.
He said the government should come clean on who it was who empowered Mavrommatis to submit an application to the north.
Whereas most criticism was founded on political grounds, some honed in on the financial cost of obtaining power from the north.
Greens deputy George Perdikis said it would have been wiser for the government to await offers from the private sector for the provision of generators (the bid deadline was yesterday) to cover electricity needs before asking the north for help.
The EAC has declined to cite specifics, saying only that the agreed rate is “within bounds.”
Over the weekend, the ‘Prime Minister’ of the breakaway regime ?rsen Küçük revealed that the price agreed with the Greek Cypriots was 19 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Perdikis warned that this information could now be exploited by private businesses who are bidding to supply the government with electricity.
“Knowing this, they might offer a rate of, say, 18.9 cents per kWh, just lower than the Turkish Cypriot’s price. That’s still higher than what we pay for electricity.”
The EAC’s tariffs for domestic use start at 13.5 cents per kWH, and the single rate, low voltage tariff is 15.39 cents for industrial use.
The Greens deputy also criticised the government for failing to take advantage of the crisis to expedite the application process for photovoltaic systems, which in theory could produce a total of up to 30 MW.
“They [the government] rushed into the deal with the north. They went for the easy solution,” he said.
