ALL WAS not quiet on the domestic front yesterday as the quarrel between government and opposition parties EDEK and DISY continued unabated.
DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades accused the president of not contributing to a climate of unity while EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou levelled a charge of intolerance to opposing views and undemocratic behaviour against the government.
The two parties came out of Wednesday’s national council all guns blazing, with DISY expressing alarm at the centralised federal government being proposed in the talks and EDEK effectively blaming the government for the EU’s latest efforts to introduce direct trade with the north.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou in turn suggested that the right-wing party DISY was influenced by its own aspirations in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
“Contrary to what it says, DISY looks at everything through the lens of the elections in 2011 and 2013,” he said.
Stefanou questioned why the sudden barrage of criticism on the government’s handling of the Cyprus problem, when the subject had been extensively discussed in September 2009 over a four-day session of the national council, concluding with a joint statement. “What happened with all that dialogue?” he asked.
He described the daily attacks on the government as “truly needless” since a three-day session of the national council has been scheduled at the end of the month to discuss all pending issues.
The spokesman rejected the DISY leader’s insinuation that President Demetris Christofias was delaying in the talks so that he could use Dervis Eroglu as an alibi for the collapse of the talks.
Stefanou reminded that Christofias made it perfectly clear that if there was no solution to the Cyprus problem, then this would be his first and last term in office.
For his part, Anastassiades argued that for a year and a half he was considered the man that supports the government on the national issue, yet in the last two months, the government has created an image of him as an opportunist.
“There is no tolerance of the other view. This is not democratic behaviour,” noted Omirou.
AKEL spokesman Stavros Evagorou said the ruling party was concerned about the negative turn taken on the domestic front and in the public debate “with the only consideration very often being to serve petty party politics”.
Regarding the support of the group of European socialists and democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament for implementation of the direct trade regulation, Stefanou accused Omirou “arbitrarily” attributing blame on the Greek Cypriot side.
He noted that the second “corrective statement” issued by the S&D group effectively put direct trade on the back burner since it put Turkey’s EU obligations towards Cyprus as a precondition to direct trade.
“This raises an issue where the socialist group moves away from supporting direct trade, putting a precondition. And because until now Turkey has not implemented its obligations and not recognised the Republic, the conclusion is, logically, that the socialists will not support direct trade,” said Stefanou.
Meanwhile, DIKO Vice-president Nicolas Papadopoulos accused the government of “amateur handling” of the direct trade issue, suggesting the Greek Cypriot side examine the option of abandoning the talks if the European Parliament goes ahead with the regulation.
