By Constantinos Psillides
AKEL on Tuesday sent a letter to House president Yiannakis Omirou asking him to force DISY MP Andreas Themistocleous to toe the line after he posted on Facebook that AKEL MP Irene Charlambidou “is the utmost authority on measuring manhood”.
Themistocleous later said it was not him, but Charalambidou who needed bringing into line.
DISY leader Averof Neofytou was also sent a letter.
AKEL claims the comment was deeply sexist and insulting.
The two MPs have a long-standing animosity, regularly attacking each other publicly.
Following a controversial plenum vote last Thursday, when legislation was passed criminalising homophobia, Charalambidou shared an article in daily Phileleftheros that attacked Themistocleous and all the MPs that voted against the bill. She captioned the story, which featured a photo of Charalambidou and Themistocleous together in a TV appearance, “manliness is not measured by brutality but by the soul that accepts humans and fights for them. Our society is changing despite the fact that some people want to keep us in the dark ages.”
In voting against the bill Themistocleous said he “wasn’t elected as an MP to vote on this kind of legislation.”
He had ranted in the past against criminalising homophobia, calling it “the worst kind of racism, anti-racism”.
The DISY MP shot back at Charalambidou on Monday, posting a lengthy status claiming that the two parties have “chaotic differences in a variety of matters”, that he has never cowered away from difficult issues and has always voiced his opinion while rejecting the notion that voting against the bill was an attempt to drag society back to the dark ages.
“Neither New York is an anachronistic society for rejecting same-sex marriage, nor are the states of Malawi, Albania and Mexico any more modernised for having allowed it, nor is California the victim of fascism when banning it via a referendum,” wrote the MP.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in both New York and California.
Making a wordplay with the word ‘andrismos’ – which can be translated as manliness, or valor and less often as a description for male genitalia – the DISY MP wrote: “If Ms Charalambidou is referring to manhood then I confess myself to be completely unqualified to measure it. I recognise Charalambidou as the utmost authority on measuring manhoods”.
Charalambidou has yet to respond to Themistocleous’ comments.
DISY issued a statement Tuesday saying the party doesn’t condone sexist behaviour but avoided naming Themistocleous.
“Under no circumstances do we adopt positions expressed in a manner inconsistent with the ethics that govern the democratic exchange of opinions. Our commitment to human rights and individual choice is a given.
“Therefore we cannot accept insults, bigoted verbal attacks with sexist innuendo, whatever the cause. Especially when those attacks originate from party officials. We ask all party members, however strongly they feel on certain subjects, to refrain from acts that hurt the democratic dialogue, principles and values that govern DISY,” the statement said.
The man himself came back later in the day with a written statement, arguing that Charalambidou has made a habit out of instigating public rows.
“In this particular instance, Ms Charalambidou posted a photo of me and her online […],” Themistocleous said, and rehashed the caption she attached to the picture.
“This post has been preceded by dozens of other incendiary posts, abusive attacks and remarks by Ms Charalambidou, against me and other DISY deputies.”
He went on to question her moral integrity by citing an instance when she swore “on her children” on live television, in order to validate her slanders against the former Greek Premier and President Nicos Anastasiades.
“This parliamentarian, practically on a permanent basis, insults, accuses and ridicules us by calling us nationalists, homophobes, sexists, clueless, medieval, backward and many other names,” Themistocleous said.
“In every instance – without fail – this deputy was the one who cast the first stone. Therefore, instead of [AKEL leader] Mr Kyprianou asking others to call me to order, he should make sure he controls and keeps his constantly snarling parliamentarian in check.”
