AFTER weeks of wrangling over the more mundane issues – cost of living, the economy, taxation, and corruption in football – the political compass yesterday swung back to the 2004 UN blueprint for a settlement.
It all began over the weekend when President Tassos Papadopoulos declared that the denunciation of the Annan plan was at the crux of the upcoming legislative elections.
His comments came during a gathering of DIKO candidates for the May elections. Centre-right DIKO, which is headed by Papadopoulos, was one of the staunchest detractors of the peace plan.
“These elections shall convey the message that the Greek Cypriot people are steadfast in their opposition to the Annan plan,” he said.
According to Papadopoulos, quarters abroad – but also in Cyprus – were watching the elections from the sidelines, keen to notice any shifts in public sentiment.
“I tell you responsibly – and I have seen several reliable reports and analyses – that many people abroad and here are awaiting the election outcome with great anxiety. They want to see whether the President’s [foreign] policy has the backing of the majority of the people, and whether the forces that supported the Annan plan are on the rise, as they hope they are.”
Papadopoulos ended with a rally call to his party cohorts:
“With your efforts, with your hard work, we shall disappoint them.”
Reaction from opposition parties was swift. DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades wondered why the President was concerning himself with the Annan plan when no one else seemed to be.
“Before his last trip abroad, the President stated that no one bothered with the Annan plan any more. But it turns out that he’s the only one who continues to do that,” he taunted.
He went on to accuse the President of trying to shift the focus away from the “real issues” at stake.
“The positions of our side [on Cyprus] are well known to the foreigners; what’s more, polls show that the majority of people favor the President’s Cyprus policy. So why all this concern about the Annan plan?
“What they’re doing is diverting attention away from the domestic scene, because the administration’s track record there has been poor,” added Anastassiades.
Weighing in, United Democrats boss Michalis Papapetrou harangued the President for dividing the people rather than acting as a unifying figure.
“Instead of making the justification of Cyprus his priority, he is making his personal justification a priority.”
And the Greens’ George Perdikis suggested that Papadopoulos may have got carried away.
“We have no problem with the President expressing his support to the ‘no’ camp. But he should be very careful not to convey the impression he is meddling in the election campaign. That is not wise.”
By contrast, socialists EDEK took the President’s dialectics to the next level, with party chairman Yiannakis Omirou employing dramatic language:
“In these elections, the people are called upon to safeguard their verdict in the referendum, but also to protect the national strategy that will not allow the respawning of the Annan plan.”
Meanwhile Anastassiades raised a few eyebrows by announcing he would be running for Speaker of the House.
According to the DISY chief, his candidacy was in “protest” at the conniving tactics between communist AKEL and DIKO to share the spoils of power.
“It’s quite clear that they have agreed, behind the scenes, that AKEL will get the parliament and DIKO the presidency. We have no problem with collaboration, so long as it is made public. It is these underhand machinations that we criticise.”
Anastassiades said the AKEL leadership was trying to persuade its supporters who were disenchanted with the present administration to back the party because ultimately AKEL would contest the presidency in 2008.
“So which is it? The presidency or the House? Let them come out and say it openly.”
Analysts said that Anastassiades’ move was aimed at drawing AKEL out and causing ripples in the communist party’s ranks, as many of AKEL’s grass roots are said to be frustrated the coalition government under Papadopoulos.
