AN ALLEGED plot to assassinate the President, a massive row over calls for a national unity government, and accusations against the Finance Ministry of fudging the numbers, were some of the highlights during discussion of the budget in parliament yesterday.
AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou caused a brief storm earlier in the week when he informed deputies of the existence of websites and blogs “encouraging the physical extermination” of President Demetris Christofias.
These purported threats appeared on spoof news sites, but Kyprianou said they were serious enough to merit concern. He provided no more details, but in a comment apparently referring to the President’s detractors, concluded: “You see, this is the only way they know how to respond to arguments.”
The reaction from the DISY camp was to trash Kyprianou’s claims, dismissing them as unsubstantiated. Deputy Tasos Mitsopoulos called Kyprianou’s remarks “highly divisive,” adding that they “hark to conspiracy theories of sinister minds.”
Also raising eyebrows was an internal row between DISY deputies Andreas Themistocleous and Socratis Hasikos over the latter’s proposal for a national unity government to deal with the critical days ahead in the Cyprus issue.
Backing up his argument, Hasikos said that as things stand a referendum on a peace plan would garner the support of just one-third of the population, that is, the AKEL faithful.
The comments drew an angry reaction from his party colleague Andreas Themistocleous, a DISY loose cannon, who accused Hasikos of espousing Turkish views and of being blind to the fact reunification talks are leading to a “catastrophe.”
Adding to the cacophony, and immediately after Hasikos had extended an olive branch, DISY deputy Soteris Sampson charged the administration of seeking to impose a communist regime. Sampson lashed out at the government’s foreign policy in particular, which he said had failed miserably.
Despite this, the government was trying to gloss over the situation. “As with every communist regime in the world, so too in Cyprus everything is presented as going well,” said Sampson.
Finally, the main opposition party accused Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis outright of distorting the numbers in a deliberate bid to conceal the true size of the public deficit.
DISY’s number two Averoff Neophytou said the Statistical Service had reported the deficit at €500 million at the end of September.
“When we asked the Finance Ministry where the deficit would stand at least until the end of November, the response we got is that they did not have figures for November, but that the month of October had generated an additional deficit of €40 million. Therefore, we were told, the deficit for the first 10 months of the year was €500.
“You don’t’ have to be an economist or a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge to know that 40 plus 500 equals 540. It’s simple maths. These economic wizards think that when they are addressing deputies they are talking to natives.”
Neophytou was incensed with the Finance Minister for not personally responding to the query, and with the fact he had “taken cover” behind a rebuttal issued by a ministry official.
“We demand a public apology from Mr. Stavrakis,” he added.
Later in the day, ruling AKEL admitted the €500 million cited was a “mistake,” but denied any attempt at distortion by the ministry.
