DISY deputy leader Efthymios Diplaros has challenged former party leader Averof Neofytou to say whether he would rather see AKEL in power, and dismissed talk of a dinner with party leader Annita Demetriou as gossip.
Diplaros was responding to a press conference at which Neofytou said Diplaros, the party’s second in command, had stated that a coalition government with Nikos Christodoulides should not be ruled out.
Speaking to philenews, Diplaros stood by his remarks. If DISY’s candidate did not make the second round, which he insisted the candidate would, the party would have to decide whether it wanted AKEL in power, he said. Referring to Neofytou, he added: “Does he prefer AKEL or centre-right policies?”
“What do we agree on with AKEL? And I’ll tell you: nothing,” Diplaros said. He would do everything humanly possible, as would thousands of DISY supporters, to make sure AKEL never returns to power, he added.
The dinner
Asked about the dinner Demetriou had with Neofytou and Chris Panayiotou, Diplaros said: “Let us not lower the level of politics to gossip. What was or was not said at the notorious dinner is of no concern to the party’s collective bodies, and nobody decides at dinners what this party will do.”
He added that Demetriou herself had denied, in an interview with the Kathimerini newspaper, that there had been any agreement on what Neofytou claims. Anyone, including the party leader or other members of the leadership, has the right to a private dinner, he said.
Opposition to the government
Diplaros said it was unfair of Neofytou to claim that DISY had not opposed the Christodoulides government. The party had spoken out about rising fixed spending, delays in getting things done and ambiguous positions on the electricity interconnection, he said.
DISY was not obsessed with opposition, he said. “It is he himself who visited President Christodoulides, not once but several times, even expressing his support over developments in the Cyprus problem.”
He said DISY supporters had given clear answers in May 2026 on the question of opposing or backing the government. Neofytou had been, and still is, a member of the party’s Political Bureau and could have asked the leadership several times to step up its opposition, he said.
“I would remind you that, when we opposed him, President Christodoulides called us DISAKEL, lumping us in with AKEL,” Diplaros said. Neofytou should not skip over that, and DISY should not simply swallow it, he added.
Party procedures
Diplaros said DISY had a charter, collective bodies and procedures. The procedures had been decided only a few hours earlier and would be followed, he said. Neofytou and anyone else seeking the party’s nomination had an inalienable right to stand, but through the party’s procedures, he said, adding that they also had the right to run outside them.
The public judges everyone by their actions and statements, and by whether they have stayed true to what they have proclaimed for many years, he said.
