Political parties blame government for downfall of CY

The closure of Cyprus Airways (CY) is a classic example of past practices that have led the country to the brink of bankruptcy, deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said on Saturday.
He added that bad practices should be left in the past and that new ones must be implemented that will benefit future generations.
He reassured all employees of the company that they will receive all the benefits they are entitled to.
“The ending of CY saddens us all and I want to express our support to the employees that lost their jobs,” Papadopoulos said.
The airline was officially closed down on Friday after the European Competition Commission ruled that government handouts to the airline were illegal and €66 million of them had to be repaid. As the airline cannot afford this operations were suspended.
“We understand the pain of the employees but the situation we had to deal with led us to that point we found our selves [on Friday] night,” Papadopoulos said.
He added that the government tried to avoid this ending but it was not possible but plans have been made so that Cyprus will not be without a flight programme.
Political parties however, disagreed with the government and blame it for allowing CY to come to an end, even for orchestrating it.
AKEL’s Eleni Mavrou said the government has consciously decided to close down CY and that all their actions were serving this purpose.
“The rejection of the restructuring plan from the European Commission is used as an excuse for government manipulation,” Mavrou said.
She said that the government’s predetermined actions are confirmed by the fact that it hurriedly closed down the company without giving time for scrutiny of the decision of the European Commission and that it did not utilise the timeframe given for the materialisation of the decision.
“We will congratulate the government because they got what they wanted; to close down CY,” said the head of the Citizens’ Alliance Giorgos Lillikas.
He said that after the bank haircut, CY’s decapitation followed.
“The government ought to tell the people know how many tens of millions it will be paying in subsidies to Ryan Air after the closing down of CY,” Lillikas said.
He added that if the government paid CY €25 subsidy for each passenger as it does with Ryan Air then CY would have millions in profit.
The government was long ready for the closing down of CY, the Green Party said expressing their disappointment.
The party blamed the government for not trying to save the company and said that they are not convinced of the government’s plans concerning the country’s accessibility.
“In a country whose large part of the economy is based on tourism how will the huge void created by CY be covered?” the party said.
EVROKO’s secretary general Marios Karantonas said that the inglorious closing down of CY shows that thoughtlessness and incompetence in the management of critical issues is not extinct and said that the party will examine the decision of the European Commission to find who’s to blame for the closing down of the company.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.