Statements by Leontios Philotheou, member of the Central Committee of AKEL

On the first 50 days of the Christodoulides government:
Thè future of the Christodoulides administration scares us

23 April 2023, “Haravgi” newspaper

The government’s (short) course to date anything but makes us optimistic about what lies ahead. It is rather frightening, AKEL C.C. member Leontios Filotheou told “Haravgi”. Unfortunately, no mistakes are recognised, he concluded.

“For starters, he pledged that a Ministerial Cabinet with the equal representation of men and women would be formed, without any former Ministers, with technocrats and scientists from abroad. Unless that is the “foreign technocrat” is Michael Hatzigiannis. Yes, the Deputy Minister of Culture, who the other day officially informed us through the webpages of the Deputy Ministry itself about how much fun they had at Nicolas Papadopoulos’ birthday party with a text that would be the envy of “Cosmopolitan” magazine. That’s how much Culture is absent.

Along with it, the notorious Advisory Council that will propose the most suitable people is also absent. Until its existence is identified, Nikos Christodoulides will have made more than half of the appointments such as, for example, the re-appointment of the Commissioner for Administration through a mock procedure. And to cap it all, an appointment was decided to the Civil Service Commission of a person who 2 of his 3 “degrees” were from “shell” Universities with a price list for each paper. This was an appointment that lasted just 24 hours to be followed by appointment – recycling.

Also missing is a list of his campaign financial contributors, which Christodoulides had promised to release “on Monday”. Really, which Monday?

At the same time, thousands of personal data have gone missing as a result of cyber-attacks.

What for sure can’t be hidden is expensiveness and the high cost of living. The foreclosures. The difficulties of a large section of the population face to make ends meet, at the same time as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been engaging in sending letters and issuing appeals for two months now.

These are just (some) of works and the (first) days of the government of Nikos Christodoulides.

While citizens are looking for solutions to their problems, the government is failing to deliver. It fails to meet their expectations.

Is this surprising? Not at all, I would venture to say. Because we had already seen what was to follow during the election campaign of Nikos Christodoulides: communication games and empty talk without a trace of substance. Pure window dressing.

And that’s how the Christodoulides governance started: with high expectations, but very (extremely) low performance and results.”