Bravo, Mr President! A thousand bravos! With your choice of Costas Kadis as European Commissioner, you’ve hit bullseye!
All your pre-election pledges are justified with this selection. You’ve silenced your critics.
It’s a slap in the face to the old guard, to the seatwarmers, and to the sickening mentality of nepotism that plagues those in power. You’ve taken a stand against the recycling of familiar faces.
Especially those who, curiously, always seem to land themselves in positions of power, regardless of who holds the reins. Your decision confirms the modernisation of politics and a change in mindset. Above all, it shows your unwavering commitment to your promises. In short, Mr President, you’ve knocked it out of the park with this choice!
Who cares if your initial appointments after taking office were a mess, with partisan appointments and unqualified individuals? Who cares if some of your choices were considered failures from the start, or if there was a dominance of cronyism and nepotism, with your own relatives benefiting? Who cares if, in those early days, you broke your promises just days after making them?
All is forgiven with yesterday’s choice of Kadis! It’s like you pulled an ace from your sleeve, Mr President! A “new” face in politics, “untainted” by the old ways. Free from the shackles of seat-warming, with no hint of recycling—a choice that embodies modernisation and meritocracy, as he wasn’t even one of your pre-election supporters. So many advantages in one selection, I can only applaud you, Mr. President!
But dear readers, if I continue in this vein, I risk causing you all to suffer a stroke, so let me clarify that this column is being facetious. Please forgive us, but if we were to take yesterday’s development seriously, we might be the ones at risk of a brain explosion.
The reality is that with the choice of Kadis, you’ve made a blunder, Mr Christodoulides. It’s a decision rooted in the worst kind of partisan mentality, the very mentality that those who voted for you had hoped to escape.
You’ve chosen someone who, for many years, has managed to hop from one government to the next and from one ministry to another. Quite a “talent,” I must admit. From July 2007 to February 2008, he served as the Minister of Health in the Tassos Papadopoulos administration. Then, from March 2014 to February 2018, he was the Minister of Education in the Nicos Anastasiades government. During that time, he even turned his back on DIKO, the party that had withdrawn from the government, while he remained. He was appointed chairman of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation and then transferred to the Ministry of Education.
In the second Anastasiades administration, it was decided that after his stints at the Health and Education ministries, he should “save” a third ministry, so he landed at the Ministry of Agriculture, where he remained until the end of the Anastasiades presidency. People should know that when you decided to run for President, and DISY demanded the resignation of ministers who supported you, Kadis found a way to stay put. He was convenient for the elephant in the room at Pindarou Street…
And now, he’s off to the European Commission as a Commissioner! A true chameleon, this man goes with any government and fits any role!
He’s almost surpassed the master of this game, Giorgos Iakovou. Iakovou held records in the Guinness Book: serving as Foreign Minister under Spyros Kyprianou, then again under Vassilios, and much later under Tassos, and finally as the Commissioner of Presidency in the Christofias administration. But Kadis, with his appointment to the European Commission, might just take the crown. He scores extra points for being a “jack-of-all-trades,” having successfully navigated three different ministries!
However, what truly matters to society, Mr Christodoulides, is not Kadis’s talent for fitting in everywhere. The real issue is your choice, which smacks of the old, recycled, nepotistic mindset, far removed from the modernisation you promised.
The public should know, Mr Christodoulides, that when you were elected, the name on the table for a ministerial position was that of Kadis’s brother. This was averted due to reactions in the media and from those involved in the healthcare sector, as his appointment would have been a provocation to those outside the GESY system.
And now, you’ve chosen Costas Kadis, with all the baggage I’ve mentioned. Simply put, Mr Christodoulides, this choice is the culmination of your failure.
