A brilliant career ends – Vassiliou to step out of top spot but not spotlight

VETERAN politician George Vassiliou yesterday said he would be stepping down as chief of the United Democrats (EDI), though he would not withdraw from public life.

The former President of the Republic (1988-1993) made the comments at a news conference ahead of his party’s congress on October 16, when a new leadership is to be elected.

At the upcoming congress, party delegates will be making an appraisal of the current administration, especially criticising foreign policy, lack of progress in modernising the civil service, a poor foreign trade policy, and the rising cost of living.

Vassilliou explained that, under the party’s charter, the chairman can serve a maximum of two terms. He did not reveal to whom he was passing the baton, except to say that his wife, former First Lady Androulla Vassiliou, would not be contesting the top party job.

The United Democrats, described as liberals, were founded by Vassiliou in 1993. The party is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.

Some of its top figures, such as former government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, have come from AKEL; the communist party has not forgiven the defections, leading to a longstanding antagnonism between the two groups.

At the last legislative elections in 2001, the United Democrats won 2.6 % of the popular vote and 1 out of 59 seats.

Vassiliou also served as the chief EU negotiator during the Clerides administration. Despite leaning to the left of the political spectrum, the United Democrats were allied to right-wing DISY in the last presidential elections.

A party outsider, Vassiliou was elected president with the support of AKEL in 1988, succeeding Spyros Kyprianou, who had served two presidential terms.

As President, he stopped the police practice of keeping files on citizens’ political beliefs, and worked towards a negotiated solution to the Cyprus dispute based on the Ghali set of ideas.

Despite running for the Presidency again in 1993, he lost to Glafcos Clerides in what were the most closely-fought elections to date.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.