DIKO leader Nicolas Papadopoulos on Saturday said he was convinced that a joint candidate backed by the centre parties would win next year’s presidential elections.
Papadopoulos, who attended the 15th annual memorial service of founder of Diko and former President Spyros Kyprianou, said that the party’s executive bureau ruled out an alliance with either ruling Disy or Akel for the 2018 presidential elections and that the centrist parties would have a single candidate.
“We are seeking to change this administration to achieve a change in policies, both as regards the Cyprus issue, the economy, and issues relating to the welfare state,” Papadopoulos said.
To achieve this goal, he said, “we believe the cooperation of the centre parties is necessary”.
Commenting on whether he agrees with the head of the Citizens’ Alliance, Giorgos Lillikas, and Edek leader, Marinos Sizopoulos, on a single candidate, he said, “not only do I agree but I want reassure everyone that the political centre will have a single candidate who will pass on to the second election Sunday and will win the presidential elections”.
Elections are usually held in the month of February.
Last week Lillikas sought to take the initiative, unofficially announcing his bid for the presidency, despite earlier consensus that the self-proclaimed ‘centre parties’ – Diko, Edek, the Citizens’ Alliance, the Solidarity Movement and the Greens – would rally behind a single candidate agreed jointly.
As regards the Cyprus problem, Papadopoulos said that “we are in an undeclared impasse in the negotiations because of the Turkish intransigence but also of the wrong strategy we pursue”.
Papadopoulos challenged “the supporters of any solution, to answer a tantalising question”. “What is the reason Nicos Anastasiades, who gave everything or almost everything at the negotiations failed to achieve a solution?”.
“The answer is that, unfortunately, the policy of concessions and surrender did not bend Turkish intransigence. On the contrary, it encouraged it. Turkey feels empowered to ask for more. This is why we need a new strategy as regards the Cyprus problem,” he said.
Papadopoulos expressed the conviction that a new strategy was necessary for the impasse to be overcome within the year as regards the settlement negotiations.
Earlier in the week Diko had called for a new strategy on the Cyprus problem, criticising Anastasiades as well as Disy and Akel for their failed policies.
