The proposal with Andreas Mavroyiannis as presidential candidate meets those standards that can express the common belief for change, said General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou during his address to the 27th Larnaca AKEL Provincial Conference.
The country, he said, needs a progressive change that ends the downhill slide, puts an end to the deadlocks and appealed to the opposition parties to march together with AKEL to achieve the goal of change.
"With the responsibility of those in power, Cyprus is seen as a country that launders dirty money and as a haven for fraudsters", he said, accusing the Democratic Rally government of "lacking credibility on the Cyprus problem, but also lacking credibility on many other issues", such as golden passports and visas.
Stefanou said that DISY and the government have downgraded the rule of law and the welfare state and "have returned us back to times of unprecedented authoritarianism, essentialism and the alarming of the state".
He then referred to the congress of AKEL, to its history and physiognomy, to its course, "with this course we will continue our own course to pass the 100 years, to pass the 200 years and to continue to march for the benefit of our people, our land, our workers and every value and ideal that man has created through his long centuries".
With this course as a trust, the Secretary General of AKEL said, "we will continue our own course by modernising our actions in today's very difficult and complex conditions locally and internationally. For us, the history of our party is the mirror that we look at in order to move forward safely with pride and dignity."
Referring to the conferences of the provincial organisations of AKEL, he said that they continue the discussion they started at the congress.
"The party's conference in Larnaca is the first in a series," he said and said that through the discussion they will have over the weekend, discussing general issues, building on the decisions of the congress, "to see how we become better, stronger, how we deal with the general and specific problems we have in the province of Larnaca. And we will certainly discuss how the provincial organisation of AKEL Larnaca will continue to produce the remarkable work that it produces for the movement and for the province and for Larnaca society."
Stefanou then pointed out that the conferences are also taking place in an environment that is full of problems of dangers and deadlocks. "Many deadlocks which are created by the governance of the country for almost 10 years by the Democratic Rally. Everywhere you look there are dead ends. So important that the present and the future of the country becomes a stake which worries us a lot," he said.
The first big deadlock is the Cyprus issue, he said, adding that "we are facing a more provocative Turkey than ever before which is instrumentalizing the deadlock to promote and strengthen the division on the ground trying to finalize the division."
And while, the AKEL Secretary General continued, "we have such a situation with a provocative Turkey, on the other hand, we have a President and a government of the Syriarchy that have managed - because it is a feat - to be considered by the international factor as co-responsible for the deadlock and stalemate".
The Greek Cypriot side's narrative on the Cyprus problem has collapsed and unfortunately the Greek Cypriot side has no international credibility and that is why it is not convincing in its narratives, he added.
But developments are running against the backdrop of the Cyprus problem stalemate and day by day partition is approaching, he said.
The AKEL General Secretary then referred to the government's lack of credibility on other issues as well, because of other issues, such as "because of the government's policies on golden passports, visas."
He went on to say that "along with this during the days of the Coalition government, we have the deterioration of the rule of law. The government has turned many institutions whose normal role is to control the state into being instrumentalised by the government to legitimise and justify government policies that are fundamentally against society and fundamentally against the rule of law."
Stefanou went on to refer to the "degradation of the welfare state as well," saying that the war in Ukraine has intensified the phenomena of inexpensiveness and inflation, but this situation started much earlier than the war. "And when AKEL was stressing the need to take measures and formulate policies to support the workers, society, the vulnerable groups of the population, the young and the young people, the government was telling us not to worry and the phenomenon is temporary. But the phenomenon is not temporary. It has come and it will continue over time," he added.
The government, he further stated, "but it continues to simply be interested in impressions, to make statements of the type that the government has given the most generous and lavish measures of all EU member states, which is not true, not based on real data but at the same time not responding to the real need that citizens, workers, society have to support themselves to be relieved and to cope as much as possible with this wave of unemployment."
He also said that the "DISY government... is interested in the big interests which it serves with its policy, it is interested in how to serve the banks, but it is not interested in the conditions and the standard of living of workers and ordinary people."
He then blamed the government that "it has returned us back to times of unprecedented authoritarianism, eccentricity and alarming the state."
Everything, he said, "in Cyprus it all bodes well that this country needs a change. It needs a progressive change that ends the downhill slide, ends the deadlocks and opens a new promising perspective for the country and the people" and mentioned as the only way to do this the victory in the presidential elections. It is, he said, "the emergence in the presidential elections of a progressive president with a progressive programme to turn the page on this country."
It is known, he said, that AKEL is in internal party procedures in relation to the nomination of a candidate who can express this effort that AKEL is making and will continue to make up to the presidential elections.
"At this moment in the party base we are discussing a proposal which we firmly believe meets these standards and above all we are discussing a proposal which enables the necessary consensus, the necessary joining of forces to achieve the goal of a common course with other political and social forces in view of the presidential elections," he said.
On behalf of AKEL, he continued, "I appeal to all those political forces that share with us the urgent need to achieve progressive change to join us in walking together so that we can achieve the goal of change".
The proposal with Andreas Mavroyiannis as presidential candidate meets those standards that can express the common conviction for change, the AKEL General Secretary said.
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