Mass rally to protest ECB meeting in Nicosia

LABOUR, pensioner and farmer unions are mobilising for a mass rally planned for next week to protest a meeting here of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Society Reacts and Demands, a platform of some 20 groups, is hoping to draw thousands to a demo outside the international conference centre in Nicosia, where the ECB officials will be meeting.

Three pre-gatherings will be held, at the Journalists House, at the headquarters of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority and outside the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) in Nicosia. From there, the demonstrators will march to the conference centre, where they will converge at 5pm next Wednesday.

The Central Bank is hosting and organising the ECB meeting.

Taking part in the demo will be trade unions PEO and DEOK (the union branches of AKEL and EDEK, respectively), the Large Families Association, the Initiative Against Foreclosures, the pensioners union EKYSY, farmers’ union EKA and Nea Agrotiki, as well as various parents’ associations.

According to a press release by the platform, Cypriot demonstrators will be joined by activists from Greece, Italy, Serbia and France, as well as the Blockupy movement.

Stephanos Koursaris, head of the small shopkeepers association, also participating, told the Cyprus Mail they expect over 12,000 people to attend.
The ECB is part of the ‘troika’ of Cyprus’ international lenders, which includes the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

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.