Giorgos Pamborides has mapped out his course for DISY’s internal elections, drawing on the party’s past, present and future to give political shape to his bid for its nomination as presidential candidate. The Nicosia MP and former health minister is now moving in step with the procedures DISY is following to choose its candidate for 2028.
For some, the situation at the party’s Pindarou Street headquarters could open the way to an alternative to the choice between Annita Demetriou and Averof Neofytou.
Pamborides appeared in two television studios on Tuesday and was fairly revealing. He did not mince his words. He spoke of the leadership’s responsibility, turned his fire on former DISY leader Neofytou and discussed the manoeuvring behind Nikos Christodoulides’s appointment as foreign minister. He also talked about the run-up to the 2023 presidential elections and the discussion of a possible candidacy of his own with AKEL’s backing, which he said concerned his running as a joint candidate in a cross-party alliance of AKEL and DIKO.
Speaking on Omega’s ‘Enimerosi Tora’ programme about his bid for the DISY nomination, he said his platform could appeal first and foremost to DISY voters but, above all, to people beyond the party. He spoke of genuine DISY supporters becoming alienated in recent years and said he could bring them back.
He also said a “little game” being played by Neofytou bothered him personally. “I could play it too, and they would tell me I was betraying DISY,” he said, adding that he had not heard anyone say the same about Neofytou, at least not so far.
He made clear, however, that he was not saying it either, as he did not believe Neofytou would betray the party. “It would be an oxymoron to see Averof Neofytou move outside DISY,” he said.
On ALPHA he was even more cutting, blaming DISY’s previous and current leadership for the state the party is in today. Asked about the video in which he announced his bid for the nomination, he said: “I make a habit of being precise when I make my thoughts public, and I think it was an honest message to those who want to hear it.”
He went on to describe the climate within DISY as toxic.
“Unfortunately, the situation is particularly toxic. The climate is not good for the Democratic Rally. And I believe, I still believe, that getting involved in an intense internal election campaign will make the problems worse rather than ease them. I have renewed my appeal to those interested,” he said.
“Let’s go into a room, because if all of us really want to lead the Democratic Rally to victory, at least on the first Sunday, we have nothing to divide us. Unless that isn’t what all of us want.”
Speaking to Katia Savva, Pamborides accused Christodoulides and Neofytou of playing a “dishonest game” against Harris Georgiades, who had asked to take the Foreign Ministry when Nicos Anastasiades was re-elected president in 2018.
“Anastasiades accused me of asking him to make me energy minister, and I denied it publicly, in an inelegant way at the time, and repeated it to him in private. I was asked three times to stay in the Anastasiades government and I refused. And there were witnesses, whom I pointed out to Anastasiades when the question of my staying on as minister came up,” he said.
“So all the talk of bitterness, that I wanted to become foreign minister, does not touch me. Harris Georgiades was earmarked for foreign minister, and a dishonest game was played against Harris to shut him out. The game was played by Nikos Christodoulides and Averof Neofytou, and they managed to shut him out so that Nikos Christodoulides would become foreign minister. And I know what went on behind the scenes very well.”
