Businessman John Christodoulou has said he is considering running for president in 2028, in a lengthy written statement on Tuesday that effectively confirmed Phileleftheros’s front-page report on Tuesday. The report said Direct Democracy Cyprus leader Fidias Panayiotou had put Christodoulou’s name forward in his contacts with political parties.
By confirming his interest, Christodoulou has put himself firmly in the frame of speculation about the election, although he said he had not yet made a final decision.
He said he loved his country and its people, and that it was precisely because of this that he found it very hard to see what was happening to them. Fifty-two years after the invasion, the Cyprus problem remains unsolved, he said, also pointing to the high cost of living, rising prices and the social problems they cause.
When he hears the phrase ‘This is Cyprus’, he said, he wants it to mean to the whole world a country where nobody goes hungry, nobody is left homeless and nobody is afraid to walk home at night. That, he said, was the Cyprus he believed in and the Cyprus Cypriots deserved.
In recent months, many people and more than one political party had asked him to consider standing in the 2028 presidential election, he said.
“I want to be clear: I am not a politician,” Christodoulou said. He had never wanted or planned a life in politics, he said, but could not accept the state the country was in. Political decisions could not continue to be made with the sole aim of winning more votes at the next election, and the country had to come first. It was out of love, and love alone, for his country that he was considering running for president in 2028, he said, adding that he was thinking very carefully about what such a decision would mean for his family and his way of life at this stage.
Anastasiades speaks, Karousos responds
Former Democratic Rally (DISY) leader Averof Neofytou dropped a bombshell with his statement calling on the President to raise the lifting of EU energy sanctions against Russia. DISY was quick to disown him the same day, saying it was his personal position.
Party vice-president Giannis Karousos stepped in to explain what exactly Neofytou meant. Onoufrios Koullas pointed to AKEL and its differences with its own candidates, while Michalis Ioannides wrote an entire social media post responding to Neofytou’s proposal.
Former president Nicos Anastasiades, meanwhile, spoke of the need for DISY to form an alliance with President Nikos Christodoulides for the second round of the presidential election, so that whichever of them fails to get through would back the other. DISY’s Efthymios Diplaros had said something similar a few days earlier. Once again, though, Karousos came out to respond to Anastasiades.
All this came as DISY’s leadership spent both Monday’s meeting and Tuesday’s contacts discussing a supposedly common line on the party’s candidacy, as well as a common line on what its officials say in public. Phileleftheros understands that Karousos was given stern advice about his statements.
AKEL responds
AKEL also weighed in on Tuesday on the talk of cooperation between DISY and Christodoulides in the second round, saying in a statement: “What divides them is ambition, what unites them is policy.”
The party said it was no surprise that Anastasiades had called for a pre-election agreement between DISY and Christodoulides for the second round in 2028. Anastasiades was clearly looking after harmony between his political camp and his “political offspring”, it said, noting that Christodoulides had repeatedly said he was proud to continue the policies of the DISY-Anastasiades government.
According to AKEL, the disagreements between the Presidential Palace and DISY begin and end with personal ambition, while on policy one simply continues the other. It said those policies had fed corruption and cronyism, made the country a laughing stock internationally and widened economic inequality. AKEL said it wanted to change precisely those policies, seeking what it calls Progressive Change in 2028 through a broad social alliance.
Neofytou’s mystery post
On Tuesday afternoon, Neofytou posted a photograph from his campaign team showing him making a statement in a T-shirt against a green background. The caption read: “Important day.”
