By Andria Kades
AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaides on Tuesday likened the government to Pontius Pilate over its stance towards Palestine and accused the state of nepotism for assigning primarily DISY members to high ranking posts.
His fiery comments during a House foreign affairs committee criticised the government for not voting in favour of Palestine waving their flag at the UN headquarters and instead abstained. An overwhelming majority of member states, 119, voted yes and eight were against. There were 45 member states – the majority from the EU, which abstained.
This is “a Pontius Pilate stance that the government is sticking to” he said, that has consequently led Cyprus to not support other EU member states on banning products from the occupied Palestinian territories.
“We believe this stance is unacceptable and needs to change if we want to keep our good relations with neighbouring Arab states that support the just cause of the Palestinian people,” he added stressing that Cyprus’ decisions have brought forth complaints from Palestine.
DISY MP Prodromos Prodromou sought to alleviate the situation saying the government’s foreign policy the past few years has boosted Cyprus’ relations citing the new Saudi Arabian embassy in Nicosia as an example of steps towards success.
Balancing a relationship between Egypt and Israel, without omitting the positive relationship with Palestine, Cyprus manages to play a positive role, Prodromou said.
On the domestic front, Loukaides said AKEL was unhappy that for the second time in a matter of days the party had to complain that posts reserved for independent officials are assigned exclusively to people belonging to the ruling DISY party.
He was referring to newly appointed data protection commissioner Eirini Loizidou Nicolaidou.
“The policy the government and DISY adopt over appointments leads to a one party state and simultaneously leads to excluding two thirds of our people from any appointments.”
Prodromou simply expressed his wish that Nicolaidou would perform her duties with the necessary zeal and sought to remind his counterpart that the previous commissioner had support from certain parties.
