PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias should resign and be replaced by a universally accepted candidate who would only remain in power for 18 months – the remainder of the current administration’s term, main opposition DISY MEP Ioannis Kasoulides said yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference, Kasoulides, who ran against Christofias in the 2008 elections, said the difficult times the country was going through “and the critical 18 months that will follow, required all parties to assume responsibility.”
“Only such an initiative would afford a way out and will convince the people that they have a leadership worthy of the circumstances,” Kasoulides said.
He added: “I believe the most patriotic move by President Christofias is the immediate submission of his resignation.”
“Whatever he does from now on, President Christofias has lost the trust of the people and it will be very very difficult for him to govern. Unfortunately it is a period when he needs to make important decisions,” Kasoulides said.
Christofias cannot be forced to follow a policy that he does not believe in, he added.
The Cypriot MEP said courageous decisions must be made in the next 18 months to save the economy and he warned that “if we do not assume the political cost of the required structural changes we will very soon be faced with bankruptcy.”
Kasoulides proposed that all parties together should agree on a common candidate for the presidency who will pledge in writing that they will not contest the elections after the 18-month term was up.
Asked if he was prepared to take the helm himself, Kasoulides said what was important was the policy in the next 18 months and not the personalities.
He added that the catharsis the people are demanding cannot be achieved by a government burdened with the personal political responsibility of the president himself.
“The matter is crystal clear. If Cyprus had met its obligations as a European country and a country that respects the decisions of the (UN) Security Council, the cargo would not have stayed in Cyprus,” Kasoulides said of the munitions confiscated on their way to Syria that eventually exploded on July 11.
It is an act of cowardice for a president to become a spectator in the punishment of personnel who were enforcing a decision he had taken.
The MEP said Cypriot foreign policy needs to turn to Europe once more to reverse the identification with countries like Iran – the origin of the munitions – Syria, Cuba and Venezuela.
“It is this policy that led President Christofias take the decision to keep the containers of death in Cyprus, ignoring the proposals of the three big European countries to help with their destruction,” Kasoulides said.
