Deputy Government Spokesman Giannis Antoniou has said he personally expects President Nikos Christodoulides to seek re-election in 2028, telling Sigma TV on Tuesday that “this is what common sense dictates.”
Antoniou noted that Christodoulides himself has said he will announce his decision towards the end of the first half of 2027, and cautioned that much will depend on the choices other parties make, both in terms of alliances and candidates.
Asked directly whether Sunday’s parliamentary results had shifted the balance ahead of 2028, Antoniou said it was still too early to draw safe conclusions. He cited historical upsets involving AKEL in the 1980s and 1990s as examples of parliamentary results failing to foreshadow presidential outcomes, and said those who treat future voter behaviour as predictable are usually proved wrong.
On the parliamentary results more broadly, Antoniou said society had once again moved to the right. The two large parties had arrested their decline, he said, and could be optimistic that they would gradually recover their strength.
Asked about a possible cabinet reshuffle following Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou’s acceptance of an education appointment, Antoniou said her departure would not automatically trigger a wider reshuffle, but said he could not rule one out. Any such decision, he said, would be the President’s to make if and when he deemed a restructuring of the government necessary.
Antoniou rejected the suggestion that DISY’s result amounted to a vote of disapproval against the President, saying the President “does not view DISY as an opposing political force” and that DISY should state where it disagrees with his choices on the major issues — the Cyprus problem, the economy, security, foreign policy, and migration. Asked whether DISY was in government or in opposition, Antoniou said that question should be put to DISY leader Annita Demetriou.
On DIKO leader Nikolaos Papadopoulos’s potential bid for the House speakership, Antoniou said it was his right to seek the position but that he would need to build alliances. “We cannot say anything either for or against,” he said. “DIKO is the main party supporting the government.”
On EDEK and DIPA, Antoniou said the EDEK leader had himself attributed the party’s drop to internal issues, while expressing his personal view that DIPA’s result might have been different had Marios Garoyan stood as a candidate.
Antoniou said the government would continue to seek consensus and operate without exclusions, adding that this was how the President understood his institutional role.
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