IT IS VERY difficult to understand the thinking of President Christofias. He regularly laments the lack of unity on the home front, but when a modicum of unity is achieved he goes out of his way to destroy it. Is this because he wants to be all things to all people or does he not think anything through before opening his mouth? Whatever the reason, his behaviour is becoming more erratic by the day.
On Sunday, in a speech he gave the United Democrats party conference, he accused all previous governments of bloating the public sector with continuous appointments, the sole reason being to buy votes. He was correct in what he said, but was it really necessary to say something that was guaranteed to antagonise all the political parties? There was also the issue of ‘people in glass houses’…
The Christofias government has also made a few thousand appointments during its term, not to mention that it was a partner in the Papadopoulos government, which was also guilty of bloating the public sector. We never heard him or any AKEL member complain back then because their members were taking a big share of public sector jobs. The truth is there is no big political party that is without blame for the bloated and over-paid public sector.
So why did he feel obliged to take the moral high ground on Sunday and disparage all the parties which had agreed to share the political cost of the austerity measures with the government? It was not as if the number of public employees had not increased under his government, something that opposition politicians immediately pointed out. There were close to 6,000 more public employees since he took over as president.
The total, based on data given by the finance minister to the legislature in August, was disputed on Monday by the government spokesman, but nobody knows who to believe and the damage was already done. Was this how Christofias hoped to preserve the political consensus secured over the economic measures, and ensure the approval of the state budget with minimal changes by the parties? A sensible leader would have avoided provoking the opposition in the week that the budget was to be approved.
But Christofias is incapable of showing good sense. Just a few days after agreeing the two-year wage freeze in the public sector with all the political parties, he undermined this unprecedented political consensus, pandering to the unions, by stating, “I agree with the unions’ position that there should have been more dialogue”. This was how the president showed his gratitude to the party leaders who put aside their differences with the government for the good of the country – by telling the irresponsible and selfish union bosses that they were right to oppose the economic measures.
Christofias’ irresponsibility and populism know no bounds.
