The former leader (Averof Neofytou) charged out, frothing at the mouth, to raise the banner of revolt. Heaven forbid anyone should take away his toy, the presidency, which he considers his by right. The current leader (Annita) hit the panic button at once. She rounded up her lieutenants and they ran their own flag up the pole at Pindarou. The deputy leader (Diplaros) bellows in public, demanding to know whether the former leader would rather see AKEL in power. The vice-president (Savia) turns up on television close to tears, channelling tearful Greek film star Martha Vourtsi, and wailing that the door is being flung open to AKEL. The honorary president (Anastasiades) announces he won’t be anybody’s small fry, seeing as nobody invited him to the fish tavern. He even has the nerve to call for unity, forgetting who the elephant in the party offices was in 2023.
This is not a party. Certainly not the serious party it liked to pass itself off as, once upon a time. It isn’t even a playground. At least there the children, carefree as they are, make a picture that hangs together. A happy one.
This is more like a ragtag troupe of talentless hams who can’t even manage the mannered delivery their absurd script calls for. Everyone is playing their own part, in a different play, from a different script, with a different ending. Up in the circle, meanwhile, Christodoulides has put his feet up and is lounging back, writing his speech for election night in February 2028.
And lest we forget, besides the talentless leads there are the… guest stars. One of them found himself at a fish tavern with the star of the show (Averof Neofytou) and Annita. There, according to the former leader, they carved up power between them. Annita gets the House presidency, Averof gets the nomination for President of the Republic!
The… guest star denies it! He met him as a publisher, he says, not as Annita’s closest ally! Pamborides, who also fancies himself as President, hears all this and goes up the wall… So do the rest of the DISY faithful. And so do we…
In truth, it’s as if the clock stopped in 2023. Three years on, the tragicomedy we lived through then carries on as if not a day had passed. And since for years we have heard it repeated almost as gospel that Averof Neofytou is a “formidable politician” blessed with rare political gifts, perhaps it’s time we took a closer look at this famous political foresight.
What sort of political foresight is it that, for more than a year before the 2023 election, failed to spot the elephant in the Pindarou offices, flattening everything in its path like a steamroller?
What sort of political foresight is it that missed the deafening message bellowed by every single poll without exception, that Christodoulides was the preferred choice of a third of DISY voters?
What sort of political foresight is it that, having made history as the only DISY candidate ever to miss the run-off, failed to see that backing the arch-rival’s candidate would leave him flat on his face for the second time in a week?
What sort of political foresight is it that still can’t grasp that if he couldn’t make the run-off in 2023 with the official party behind him, he hasn’t a hope of making it without DISY?
And what sort of political foresight is it that believes a deal was struck in a fish tavern, over sea bream and wine, to back him for President of the Republic if he helped get Annita re-elected House President?
With all due respect, since bad luck comes in threes and Averof is heading for his third faceplant, let’s at least stop kidding ourselves. And there’s something else that doesn’t stand up. Some people claim Averof is doing today exactly what Nikos Christodoulides did in 2023. Nothing of the sort!
In 2023 there was no formal procedure for the whole DISY membership to choose the party’s presidential candidate. Christodoulides, or anyone else in his shoes, didn’t stand the faintest chance of winning the nomination, because the choice lay with a party body almost entirely controlled by the leadership and the party machine.
Now, though, the choice will be made by the entire membership. If someone genuinely believes they have what it takes to lead their party to the presidency, they don’t need to go looking in fish taverns for deals. Go to the grassroots. Ask for the vote. Let the 52,000 members decide.
That’s called democracy! Anyone who dares face it: here’s your stage… But Averof bottled it in 2023, against a member with barely any record in the party. And he’s bottling it again now…
