President Nikos Christodoulides has revealed that Greece dispatched two pairs of fighter jets and two modern frigates to Cyprus after he personally called Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to request assistance.
Speaking at the 16th congress of New Democracy in Greece on Saturday, Christodoulides said: “I will never, ever forget the immediate response of the Prime Minister of Greece when I contacted him to ask for help. Without hesitation, without a second thought, my friend Kyriakos responded immediately, sending to Cyprus two pairs of fighters from the Greek air force and two state-of-the-art frigates.”
The disclosure came as both Christodoulides and DISY leader Annita Demetriou used the congress platform to deliver coordinated messages to Cypriot voters ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections, with both speakers centring their remarks on responsible governance versus populism.
Demetriou, who addressed the congress on Sunday, described populism as a politics that “does not appeal to reason, but to emotion. It does not want to solve problems, it wants to make an impression. It does not build, it destroys. It does not propose, it denounces. It does not unite, it divides.” She added: “Today, more than ever, the value of responsibility must once again become a central value of political life.”
She said Greece and Cyprus faced “a common challenge — the dominance of cheap impressionism, toxicity and populism in public life.” Demetriou also said DISY and New Democracy “do not put the country into adventures” and “do not regard instability as an opportunity,” adding: “Strength is truth. Strength is composure. Strength is prudence. Strength is keeping your country standing when others are investing in destabilisation.”
Christodoulides struck a similar tone, warning that narratives proclaiming the end of ideologies served those who “without an ideological background or clear political framework, insist on denouncing without proposing, on putting forward positions that are unachievable and unfeasible, without practical value.” He called for policies that are implementable, costed, practically applicable and sustainable, saying “major national issues do not lend themselves to experimentation.”
On geopolitics, Demetriou pointed to Greece’s growing strategic value in defence, energy and international alliances, citing Alexandroupolis, Revythousa and energy corridors to south-eastern and central Europe as evidence that “Greece is becoming a key gateway for natural gas and energy into Europe.”
She called for Cyprus and Greece to be “at the core of this new architecture,” referencing the Great Sea Interconnector and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.
Christodoulides said that during a period of intense geopolitical and geo-economic shifts, Greece and Cyprus were “taking initiatives, responsibly and collectively, as pillars of progress and development, as factors of security and stability.”
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