Left-wing opposition party AKEL demanded urgent government action on Wednesday to address housing and energy poverty after eight people died in fire-related incidents since the beginning of the year.
Speaking at a protest rally in the working-class Agios Nikolaos area of Limassol, where six people died in the past two weeks, AKEL parliamentary spokesperson George Loukaidis said the deaths were not accidents but “the harshest, most brutal consequence of poverty”.
“In 2025, in Cyprus, a European country in the 21st century, people are losing their lives from fires in their homes,” Loukaidis told demonstrators. “Fire becomes the killer of poor and helpless people.”
The opposition spokesperson blamed government policies characterised by “social insensitivity, neoliberalism, inadequacy and negligence”.
According to Loukaidis, a draft bill for electrical installation inspections in premises has remained shelved for a year, while the government has failed to implement effective checks on dangerous electrical appliances entering the country.
AKEL highlighted that approximately 117,000 Cypriots live on the poverty line, with a third of citizens earning gross income below €1,500. The party also noted that Cyprus has among the highest electricity prices in Europe.
“People in poor neighbourhoods die because they cannot afford to fix their electrical installations,” Loukaidis said. “They die because they are forced to use dangerous and worn-out appliances.”
The opposition has proposed several immediate measures, including a housing policy developed through cooperation between local authorities and state agencies to produce affordable housing units.
AKEL also called for a reduction in electricity VAT from 19% to 9% and expanded funding programmes for photovoltaic installation and energy efficiency upgrades for homes.
Additional proposals include rent caps through state housing schemes, rent allowances based on socioeconomic criteria, targeted interest rate subsidies for existing and new loans, and automatic inclusion of eligible citizens in the Electricity Authority of Cyprus’s special tariff.
“Poverty kills. Injustice kills. Indifference kills,” Loukaidis said. “We are fighting for a dignified life, for decent work with rights, for decent housing, for energy affordable to all.”
Background context
This morning authorities found two migrants dead of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, inside a makeshift bedroom in Limassol, with a charcoal grill besides an airbed, suggesting they died while trying to keep warm.
The deaths occurred amid increasing attention to housing conditions and inequality in Cyprus and particularly Limassol. On February 15, a family of five died inside their home in the working-class Agios Nikolaos area of Limassol, after a fire that started allegedly due to an electrical fault.
The housing crisis in Limassol has been exacerbated by the city’s development model focusing on high-rises catered to wealthy, mainly foreign investors and professionals. This, as a result, has skyrocketed rent prices in Cyprus’s second-largest city, driving many families, such as the one who died on February 15, to seek cheaper and potentially unsafe alternatives. The five-member family was reportedly living in a one-bedroom apartment divided in two with flammable plasterboard.
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