Democratic Party (DIKO) in Cyprus having crisis

The Ministers of Education and Defence Kyriakos Kenevezos, and Fotis Fotiou said on Monday they were suspending their participation in Diko because of  its decision to leave the government over the Cyprus issue. For his part Health Minister Petros Petrides said he was resigning from his party.
They are among four Diko ministers in Anastasiades’ government. One of them, Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis has already resigned from the party.
Diko president Nicolas Papadopoulos immediately countered that ‘Diko is not the chairs.’  He said Diko had made a clear decision to exit the government because Anastasiades had reneged on his pre-election promise.
All 11 ministers in the cabinet have tendered their resignations to the president, freeing his hands to proceed with a reshuffle if he so decides. The president has said that he will make his decision by mid-March and has asked all ministers to stay on until then.
Diko’s decision making bodies voted by narrow majority 10 days ago to withdraw its support from Anastasiades over his handling of the Cyprus problem. The four ministers were told to leave the government immediately.
In separate statements Kenevezos and Fotiou said they believed Diko should play a part as a coalition party in efforts to find a Cyprus settlement.
In the light of the above, they were uspending his active participation from Diko, in the hope that the situation would soon change. They said they would remain an active citizen, working for the good of the country.

Cyprus Weeklt

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