Society had been shaking up the political system time and again in successive elections.
The traditional parties and politicians had been dealt blow after blow, but they turned a blind eye and a shut their ears, ignoring the warning signs.
Yesterday’s election results delivered a shockwave; an impressive and historic earthquake (until the next one).
A young newcomer to politics, who had no connection whatsoever and who ran as a joke – similar to the ones he posts on TikTok – managed to convince one in five voters to cast their ballot for him.
He came in third, even making the large party AKEL feel his hot breath on its neck.
For years, society has been fed up with the incompetence of parties to address the serious problems of citizens.
They have been exasperated, watching them get entangled in scandals and focusing on securing personal gains.
They have been outraged by their constant bickering.
Society delivered the first blow by boosting ELAM, which in the parliamentary elections soared from a meagre 1.08% in 2011 to 6.75% in 2021.
A clear picture of the electorate’s reaction emerges from the European elections as well, where ELAM received a mere 663 votes in 2009!
In 2019, they surged to 23,167 votes and a percentage of 8.25%!
However, the party leaders failed to grasp even the slightest thing.
Society decided to deliver a second, resounding slap.
This was reflected in the successive, massive loss of percentages by all traditional parties.
DISY lost approximately 40,000 voters from the 2011 to the 2021 parliamentary elections, seeing its percentage drop from 34.28% to the shameful 27.77%. Yet, it insists on caring only about coming first.
The same goes for AKEL, which lost around 52,000 voters, dropping from a proud 32.67% to a painful 22.34%.
DIKO measures a loss of 23,000 voters, while EDEK lost 12,000.
Not even this resounding slap could wake up the parties.
One hid behind its first-place finish, another kept repeating in an annoying manner that it had supposedly gotten the message, a third hid behind its third-place finish, and a fourth took comfort in its ups and downs.
However, society was impatient. Its problems multiplied (inflation, rents, immigration, etc.).
The third slap was not as painful as the previous ones, but it was still resounding.
It could have brought anyone with a modicum of reflexes to their senses.
The abstention rate in the 2019 European elections skyrocketed to 55%! Yet, the party leaders were unmoved.
In a cunning move, they scheduled the European and municipal elections simultaneously, thinking that the thousands of municipal candidates would be enough to bring people to the polls.
Alas… Yesterday’s abstention rate remained extremely high at 49.5%!
The last blow society dealt the parties was painful.
It left the two major parties out of power and elected an independent President, who ran without the support of one of the two major parties.
Even this did not seem to rouse the two large parties from their slumber.
It also happened that the independent President, whom the majority of society trusted, turned out to be, so far, inferior to the circumstances.
This fact further fuelled the anger of society.
Then came these European elections, and society was enraged. A large part of it was determined to punish the parties, to take revenge for their deafness after so many years of warnings.
Along came a newcomer, a social media jokester. An ideal candidate.
An “apolitique” outsider, a complete novice in politics, an influencer.
This was not just a slap, but a punch to the gut of the parties. It could even be called a kick to their behinds.
He managed to keep one of the two MEPs of the second-largest party out of the European Parliament.
What will follow? Logic dictates that, finally, they must learn their lesson.
However, listening to Annita last night screeching about a victory (tomorrow we will analyse why it is not), there seem to be slim chances that even now, they may turn a new page.
Imagine in the next election, Fidias gets “cloned” and we have four-five TikTok candidates.
We will no longer be talking about slaps, punches, and earthquakes, but about funerals!
