The Democratic Rally (DISY) faces a new crisis, with its leadership rushing to put out the fires started by Averof Neofytou’s announcement that he will run for president. By invoking the party’s constitution, it is trying to turn the pressure back on him.
The former DISY leader is pressing ahead regardless. His statement on Sunday made clear not only that he has no intention of waiting for the party’s procedures, but that he seems determined to face down the criticism his move will draw. For many, Neofytou has nothing left to lose politically and is going all in, staking everything on a political platform in favour of a solution to the Cyprus problem.
No mention of the party
His written statement was unambiguous. It does not speak of seeking DISY’s nomination but of a candidacy, and it calls on those who believe in it to join him. In 180 words, it makes no mention whatsoever of DISY, and that says a lot.
The timing is also telling. He clearly wanted to get in ahead of Monday’s leadership meeting, which was very likely to return to the presidential elections and to his own intentions. Neofytou had said twice in television appearances that if there was no progress on the Cyprus problem, he would run for president.
“The window of hope for the Cyprus problem has unfortunately remained closed. After the high-level contacts in New York, not the slightest thing was agreed. Guterres, who had tied his legacy to a solution of the Cyprus problem, leaves in three months,” he wrote.
“The deadlocks remain. The dark clouds covering our country are growing ever thicker. I warned in vain that time was not on our side. We did not even achieve a negotiating process. It seems I was speaking to deaf ears. The country’s leadership preferred the well-trodden path.
“I share the anxiety and the demand of a large part of our compatriots for a national awakening, for mobilisation with the vision of reuniting our homeland and ending the occupation.
“A patriotic vigilance that will lift us out of the nirvana of passivity, resignation and de facto acceptance of the status quo.
“I join this sacred struggle. I declare myself present and submit my candidacy for the 2028 Presidential Elections. To solve the country’s great problems. To give young people prospects. To build a fair society. Above all, for a Reunited Homeland. Together We Move Forward.”
Will he be expelled?
At DISY’s Pindarou Street headquarters, the mood is one of deep concern. The leadership met by video conference shortly after midday on Sunday and issued a statement in the afternoon. Various ideas were aired, and in effect all that now remains is for Neofytou’s candidacy outside the party’s procedures to become official.
That will become clear once DISY opens the process for the presidential elections and sets a date for expressions of interest, if the former leader does not come forward. In that case, the leadership is expected to propose his expulsion, as the party’s constitution provides.
In its statement, Pindarou invoked DISY’s constitution and made the point that this was a matter of institutions, not individuals.
“The Democratic Rally operates on the basis of its Constitution and its collective decisions. Anyone interested in running for the Presidency of the Republic certainly has every right to do so,” the statement said.
“The only route to claiming the Democratic Rally’s nomination is the party’s established constitutional procedures. Former DISY President Averof Neofytou knows the importance of procedures and of collective decision-making,” it added. “It is not a matter of individuals. It is a matter of institutions, of respect for the tens of thousands of members and of the unity of the party. The rules will be upheld and decisions will be taken by the competent collective bodies and the members of DISY, in accordance with the Constitution.”
A change of course
Neofytou is not interested in returning to the party, and his career in parliament is over. For more than two years he has rented offices on Athalassas Avenue, where he has built his political team. He has held a round of meetings and made regular political interventions, and lately he has let it be known, sometimes discreetly and sometimes openly, that he wants to run in 2028. Until recently, however, he often described himself as “institutional”, meaning he would follow the party’s procedures.
There may be different explanations for why he changed course. But some facts cannot be ignored.
Renting offices, hiring staff and building a team were all moves made with the presidential elections in mind. Would it really have been enough simply to seek the party’s nomination and, if he lost, stand beside the official candidate? That is what he himself said. So?
Having led DISY for ten years, Neofytou had, and still has, a strong base among party officials and the party machine. He evidently believed he could win any internal battle, and other veteran DISY figures said as much, as a warning to Annita Demetriou. So what changed?
On the one hand, polls had begun to foster a sense that Demetriou was electable. On the other, some of the DISY leader’s moves, such as appointing large numbers of people to the party’s Government Work Monitoring Council, were seen by Neofytou and many others as efforts to strengthen and consolidate her position within the party and weaken his own.
The latest DISY leadership meeting, held at Pindarou last Monday, also enters the equation. It sent out a message backing Demetriou’s candidacy as a unity option that would avoid a vote. If that held, it would effectively take everyone else out of the race. Last week, Neofytou and Pamborides met for lunch at a well-known restaurant on Pindarou Street. The timing may or may not have been a coincidence. They certainly had a political conversation, and not a vague or general one.
A recent poll carried out for Neofytou’s team, which Phileleftheros reported on Saturday, tested various candidate scenarios, including ones in which Neofytou and Demetriou both ran. It was a sign that he had lately been weighing up that scenario.
