Former President Nicos Anastasiades has called for the Democratic Rally (DISY) and President Nikos Christodoulides to agree now that whichever of them fails to reach the second round of the presidential elections will back the other against the candidate supported by AKEL.
He set out the position on an ANT1 podcast, excerpts of which were aired on the station’s main evening news on Monday.
Anastasiades said the party should first have discussed the prospect of working with other political parties, and only then held its internal process to choose a candidate. He said the DISY leader had been right to withdraw from the race for the party’s nomination.
He made clear that he would stand by the party’s chosen candidate. “I have not betrayed and will not betray the party,” he said, adding that this was despite what had been said, and was still being said, by some who, as he put it, liked to act more royalist than the king.
While Anastasiades said he agreed with the Christodoulides government’s economic, social and foreign policy, he criticised his successor for delays in announcing infrastructure projects and for the decision to cancel projects whose future remains unresolved.
He also took aim at the way Christodoulides treats his aides and people who helped him in his political career. Anastasiades said there were complaints that the President overlooked aides and ministers, believing he had the final word on certain issues. He called this a mistake and one of the problems Christodoulides would have to deal with.
He said the President’s decision to appoint Nikos Tornaritis as an adviser on the Cyprus problem, responsible for Africa and Asia, was wrong, describing it as an unnecessary move that provokes DISY.
Anastasiades denied rumours that he had backed Christodoulides in the first round of the 2023 elections, but acknowledged that he was his choice in the second round.
Without naming former DISY leader Averof Neofytou, he said that anyone who lost an election while believing they had done everything political planning required could not blame their mistakes on others.
He urged the two contenders for the DISY nomination to be very careful and to avoid anything that could cause a rift or rivalry ending in a decision taken out of spite or on grounds of conscience. He said he hoped this would be avoided, as the two were rivals for the nomination now but must be allies the day after.
Anastasiades confirmed that he had met Giorgos Pamborides and said a meeting with Neofytou was being arranged.
