The question in the headline could have been put another way: saving party unity, or clutching at a personal lifeline? What is playing out on the political stage, with the Democratic Rally (DISY) at its centre, is a sorry spectacle.
It is all the sorrier because the leading players in this story were people in whom the public wanted to see something new, untarnished and fresh. A break from the decay of a political system that had left people weary and disillusioned. The disillusionment now runs deep…
Political dignity and principle were bartered away for personal political survival. Yes, that is what actually happened, and it is truly dismal. The truth about each player’s political stature has been laid bare for their own political audience to see, though a large part of that audience refuses to look.
To get to the point, and to avoid speaking in vague generalities: what happened at Pindarou Street on Thursday was an attempt by Annita Demetriou to strike a personal bargain that would secure her own political survival by keeping her in the party presidency. As for Averof Neophytou, events played out in his favour.
According to our information, both Annita Demetriou and party spokesman Onoufrios Koulas asked for Averof Neophytou’s backing for Annita to remain at the party, not only until the end of her term but beyond 2028. The hope, evidently, was that she would stay in the spotlight and make a comeback in 2033. In return, she would drop her own intention to stand as a candidate, for the sake of… the unity of the party and the wider political camp.
According to our information, this… “deal” was also part of how the DISY leader justified her decision to the people she contacted on Thursday, before the joint announcement withdrawing her interest. As though it were the most reasonable political argument in the world. So this is unity, then…
The reality is that the prospect of Averof Neophytou running outside the party’s procedures was piling on the pressure. And she buckled under it. Why? For the simple reason that neither she nor her communications team managed to handle the affair of that notorious dinner at the fish tavern.
In the fallout from the whole episode came the collapse of Annita Demetriou’s prospects and momentum. This was showing up in polling, according to our information, and the possibility that she could lose the internal party election for the nomination had become very real. Defeat in that internal contest might even have hastened moves within DISY for changes at Pindarou Street. And so… unity prevailed.
This theatre of the absurd, however, has had its aftershocks. They are, of course, once again the result of clumsy, or indeed bad-faith, handling by the party leader herself. From Thursday evening until Saturday morning, the impression had taken hold that Averof Neophytou had gone to the meeting together with publisher and veteran DISY figure Frixos Koulermos. Giorgos Pamboridis even came out and spoke of minders.
Clearly, he too had been given that impression, since he was summoned an hour after the meeting with Averof and Koulermos. It was wrong, of course, if, as he claims, Frixos Koulermos asked him to withdraw. But the central issue in this whole affair is that Mr Koulermos, as he stated, was invited to the meeting by the party leader herself. Why was this never made clear?
Annita Demetriou appeared on any number of midday programmes on Friday. Why did she not say that she herself had invited him? And why did she invite him? As a veteran party figure, some will say. Yes, fair enough, but why Mr Koulermos alone? Why not Mr Panayiotis Demetriou as well? Why not Mr Ioannis Kasoulides, or someone else?
Averof Neophytou and Giorgos Pamboridis will be judged by DISY voters, both for their actions and for their political positions, at the internal ballot for the nomination.
But the party leader and her close associates are also being judged, in each person’s political conscience, for their decisions and their handling of events. The cycle of lost dreams at Pindarou Street has run its course.
