[BR]
If you had a young person in front of you, and he asked you why he should go vote in the 2023 presidential election, how would you answer?
I would tell him that, whether he realizes it or not, whether he likes it or not, his individual future depends on his collective future. If, for example, he can't get a job, or his housing costs are so high, or he sees his political cronies getting appointed while he stays out of the way, these are all points of intersection between the collective and the individual. When my country goes to shit, unless I am a member of the elite (corrupt or not), I am affected too. If my country gives me well-paid employment opportunities and makes me feel that I can realize my dreams, then I know that with my sweat and imagination I can get ahead.
I want to remind you of something that Warren Buffett, the world's greatest investor, has said. "I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done in my life if I hadn't been fortunate enough to grow up in America." The way a country operates determines the parameters of our individual choices. By voting, we have the ability to declare what kind of country we want to have. Countries do not randomly change on their own. Citizen mobilisation is required. The right to demand comes with the obligation to participate.
I would say to him that they are not all the same, that he should look for the differences between the candidates - those who represent the parties that led the country into bankruptcy and made it internationally disreputable, and those who have given examples of their vision and managerial competence. I would also say to him that he has every interest in building an equal opportunity society. A society where young people move forward on merit with what they know, not what they know. That well-paid positions should not be reserved only for the children of the factions and the party tube, but for all the citizens of Cyprus and, of course, that they should be occupied by the most suitable and the most capable. I would tell him to choose the candidate who embraces the most modern methods of governance. Who bases his positions on scientific evidence, common sense and intends to entrust the implementation of his programme to the best human resources.
I would tell him to choose the candidate who is as far away as possible from the curse of partisanship, who intends to put an end to the client state. Someone who has already demonstrated a track record of being able to produce work, and under adverse conditions. Only in such a Cyprus, with such leadership, will young people have prospects. I often tell young people that the timeless gold of a country is the creativity of its people. The size of a country no longer depends on its geographical size, nor on the size of its population. The size of a country depends on the minds of its young people. If we succeed in February 2023, we will see the start of a great effort to bring young people into the productive process, and thus a new beginning for the country. I have both a vision and a plan.
And why should I vote for you?
For many reasons. First because my candidacy and my political discourse is outside the party establishment. I'm not a politician, I don't deal with anyone, I don't seek personal gain. I have no political patrons, I have no unpaid political transaction bills. I do not round my words to gain votes. I don't make a living out of politics so I have to do everything I can to stay in it. My ideology is my service to my country. I am a citizen who is passionate about the common good.
Second, my program is a set of radical changes that will unleash the creative forces of our country and lead it to growth. I will use scientific evidence, common sense and the best human resources we have in Cyprus and in the diaspora. Away from party dependencies, I intend to uproot the client state.
Thirdly, I am not sky-high, I have already given examples: what I did at the University of Cyprus as rector, under conditions of dire economic crisis, when the country was on its knees, I want to do for the whole country.
Fourthly, because I speak the language of truth and I take risks.
Fourthly, because I speak the language of truth and I take risks. I am the only candidate who did not climb any party ladder to seek support. Playing "independent" after the parties shut the doors on you is playing dude for free. To say you are "independent" but be a member of the ruling party and be supported by an opposition party shows that you underestimate the intelligence of others. To announce your "independent" candidacy after the second largest party has chosen you demonstrates your timidity. In all these cases, the candidate is not taking a risk, therefore not inspiring.
The real "guts" in politics is straightforwardness, boldness and risk-taking. It is clear and honest political discourse, without the worry of losing favor with a party, a church leader, or a big donor. Everything else is political marketing. The language of truth is not embraced by any party, even if they parrot it. As a citizen, I take the risk and responsibility that comes with running as a candidate. I call on my fellow citizens to take their own risk by going to the polls and sweeping away everything that makes us ashamed of being Cypriots. Finally, do not forget that I am the only candidate who is a refugee. The Cyprus issue for me is not a career, it is a painful experience. I belong to the generation of people who left their villages in a flash, with nothing on them, not even pictures of their childhood. Not a day goes by that I don't think of Lapitho. My memories are not so much nostalgia as determination to solve our major national problem.
Why are you running for the Presidency of the Republic? What is your motivation?
From my passion for my country and its prospects! They say to me, 'but what are you going to do? You're going to take on the beasts'. I answer them: exactly that. David will take on the Goliaths. Not because I did a cost-benefit calculation, but because I can't live any other way. I won't be able to look my children and my students in the eye if I haven't struggled to do something myself, as much as I can. If not people like me, who? If those of us who have successful management experience, have proven that we believe in meritocracy, and have a vision for the country do not get involved in the public sphere, then the usual suspects - the people of the party tube and the minions of organized interests - will be involved in the public sphere.
As long as I live, I will fight for my country. As long as I understand myself as a member of the community of Pallikaridis, Matsis and Afxentios, I will always have the moral obligation to fight for a better future.
I believe in the quality of the people of Cyprus, in the great prospects of our country for a bright future for future generations. I believe that our history, our culture, our geopolitical position, which have unfortunately served as a curse due to our irresponsible and short-sighted leadership since the birth of the Republic, can and should be the leaven for a Cyprus that will make us proud, that will conquer the position it deserves in the international arena and will be able to keep its children in their homeland to create and grow.
I believe that we lack the leadership that will lead us to our prosperity. We want to take our country back into our own hands and rebuild it properly. My ideology is the progress of Cyprus and its people. I want for our country a second chance to build a modern state, with a viable solution to the Cyprus problem, with a sustainable economy different from the current one, and an equal opportunity society based on creativity and meritocracy. I want us to break away from the restrictive right-left dichotomy. Today, in Cyprus we need other, more complex and bold definitions that fruitfully combine progress with tradition, patriotism with cosmopolitanism, liberalism with communitarianism.
As the only refugee candidate, I have the privilege and the obligation to be the voice of the refugees, of all those whom the worn-out political system remembers only on the eve of elections. I want to speak out about the ongoing injustice of uprooting, about the exploitation of refugees by politicians and lawyers. I want to talk about all those whom the political system has thrown into the refugee camps and considered itself finished with them. I also want to speak for the children of the refugees who, even after their property has been mortgaged in the occupied territories, are still being asked to pay interest on their student loans. Shame!"
You have developed your election programme. Do you have the team ready that can implement it?
I am the only candidate who had his programme ready and posted on the New Wave website before he announced his candidacy. It is dishonest to ask for people's vote without telling them what you are asking them to vote for. I am standing as a candidate precisely because I have documented proposals that I want to implement. Many of our ideas are bold and innovative. But they are perfectly feasible. Because we felt it was our duty to get away from vicious promises, and to cost them, with the help of the best economists in the country. We approached the European Banks, and other institutions, to know that there is interest in financing such an ambitious project. What we are proposing can be done and we are able to make it happen.
I have learned as Rector and as a leader of a number of organisations to rely on trusted partners who share my vision and passion, who have an appetite for work, and who are also characterised by honesty and selflessness. Both the steering group and the 77 members of the New Wave were selected precisely according to these criteria. The best experts in each field worked for my project. The right work can only be done if the right people are selected for each position, based on objective criteria, without the baggage of party and other dependencies.
Yes, of course I already have in mind the team that can implement the ambitious and innovative programme we are proposing.
What will be your first priority if the citizens honour you with their vote?
To tear down the wall that divides the Cypriot Society. It is the wall that divides people into "ours" and "others". Those who have access to power and those who do not. To those who are appointed and recycled incessantly to boards of semi-governmental organisations and positions in the civil service and to those who will wait forever, even if they are qualified and better suited. To those who demonise state, church and Turkish Cypriot property and to those who look at their own property in the North from afar. To those who turn a blind eye to corrupt businessmen by drinking wine with them, taking kickbacks and shamelessly exclaiming "This is Cyprus!" and to those who work conscientiously, pay taxes and want to live under the rule of law. To those who see holding public office as an opportunity to get rich and to those who see it as an opportunity to give.
Along with the Wall of Occupation, we should finally tear down the Wall of Shame. It's time to sweep it away! This will be my first priority.
Your speech is usually denunciatory, especially about politicians and the political system. I want to remind you that politicians, good or bad, have a minimum of legitimacy. We elect them, don't we? If there is corruption in politics and in general, obviously we as citizens are not without responsibility, are we?"
Yes, we are. The great philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis used to say that democracy is the only constitution in which you cannot blame others, as long as the "demos" chooses. This is why self-serving politicians, in order to deflect enormous responsibility for the way they (did not) serve their oath to protect the public interest, say "we all got it together". If we all 'got it together', then the responsibility is spread across the board, so those who managed the public have no particular responsibility. See the sophistry? 'You elected us, you collaborated with us on the bungles, so don't talk. You are no better than us.'
Because we know how to read and write, because we have not lost our ability to think logically, and because we have not lost our memory, we know that this sophism is shamelessly self-serving - it wants to oil those who have patronized the state, contributed to the bankruptcy, and contributed to the corruption. To the sophists, then, I reply: anonymous citizens are morally responsible for their choices, but anonymous politicians are sworn to serve the common good. How did they serve it?
Judge for yourself. Read official reports of institutions of the Republic of Cyprus and follow the authoritative journalistic reporting.
More than half of the passports issued to foreigners were issued illegally. The President of the Republic, Anastasiades, through acts of bribery, violated the code of conduct of his Cabinet of Ministers, while his name is allegedly in the Panama and Pandora Papers. The former Speaker of the Parliament and at least one opposition MP were caught on camera negotiating passports to a convicted foreigner. The Report on the Collapse of the Co-operative explicitly states the enormous responsibilities of the then Finance Minister, Mr Georgiades: 'The responsibilities of the Finance Minister were grave for the collapse of the Co-operative Credit System. We can say that they are analogously similar to the responsibilities of any major shareholder of a private company that ends up being dissolved due to his own mismanagement (p.752). The Report goes further and underlines the responsibilities of the political parties, which it accuses of a patronage mentality: 'We reiterate the negative influence of the Cypriot political parties on the course of the Co-operative. The criterion of their decisions was not the well-meaning interest of the Co-operative but rather their own domination and serving their own party interest" (p.751). In a democracy we elect - directly or indirectly - people to serve the common good. When they don't, they are the ones primarily politically responsible - they broke their oath. The general moral responsibilities of citizens for their choices in no way negate the specific political responsibilities of their representatives. Politicians selfishly want to make us all jointly responsible. Sorry, we are not. We did not bankrupt Cooperatism, Cyprus Airlines or Laiki. You betrayed our trust.
We must not forget what the politicians want us to forget: the parties were involved in scandals, they bankrupted semi-public institutions and our country as a whole, they corrupted the civil service with their buffets, they plunged the country into the mire of corruption and international disrepute. It is all their own creation. On the Cyprus issue you claim that you want to tear down the wall of occupation. It sounds like a highly ambitious goal, which, for all its boldness, borders on wishful thinking. Is there a President who does not want a solution to the Cyprus problem? Is it up to the President?[/B]
Listen, in politics what matters is not what you say but what you do. What matters is the result. Unfortunately, the whole political system that has ruled us all these years has brought Cyprus to the brink of partition. You ask me if the solution depends on the President, the answer is that yes, it depends to a large extent on the President when he is also the negotiator of our side. The country of course needs a President who can choose the best partners and together with them decode international developments correctly. A serious President, sober and self-ruling, without dependencies.
We want a President who is able to create friends and allies, who has moral authority and who is not suspected of illegal transactions, and whose name is not included in the Panama and Pandora Papers. All this is important in international developments. If you have all these things, as soon as geopolitical developments allow it, you can cash in all that you have built.
Opportunities are like comets, they pass every hundred years and woe to those who do not lift their eyes to look at them. We have lost many years and many opportunities. I will not say that it is easy to recover what we have lost. It won't happen overnight. But every day, and every moment, we must build our alliances, our defense, our strength, both nationally and internationally, on the basis of a consistent strategy, and geopolitical realities. We must recognize our strengths and weaknesses, understand our adversaries, learn how to read our interlocutors and not just extract statements for internal consumption.
Our country has been given two opportunities by the West in recent years. The first with our accession to the EU and the second with the start of the gas affair. We could have made significant national gains, but unfortunately we had leaderships below historical circumstances.
Do you think there are prospects for a solution to the Cyprus problem? With Turkey talking about two states, do you have expectations that there can be room for understanding?
Yes, otherwise there would be no point in this whole effort. The big vision is the reunification of our homeland, it is worth remembering that no matter how much we progress as individuals, without a solution to the Cyprus problem we will not be able to go very far. Without the birthplace of our ancestors, it is impossible to find ourselves and our soul. We will never be complete as human beings. Without a solution, there will not be a Turkish Cypriot community for much longer.
In our program we have submitted a lengthy analysis of the Cyprus issue. Hard and continuous work is needed, not slogans. We need to get rid of all those who made a career out of the Cyprus issue. From all those who got rich from the Cyprus issue. The continued viciousness in our leadership hurts the credibility of the country. Small states need moral authority to survive. No one wants to be identified with countries whose leaders are involved in activities of dubious legitimacy. I expect that geopolitical developments will soon open some windows of opportunity for us. Along with opportunities, of course, there are also enormous risks. This is a very important reason why the country should be led by people who have the ability to correctly decode international developments, not by those who for years have been contradicted daily by developments.
The great politicians, Bismarck once said, are those who hear the distant neighing of the horses of history before the others. Can we trust again those who told us that Turkey is bluffing on Famagusta?
Can we trust again those who told us that Turkey has no expertise and no drilling rig for the Eastern Mediterranean?
Today the main manipulators of the Cyprus problem are asking for the vote of the people, really, to do what? They had their chance and they blew it!!!
I entered the electoral battle determined to always speak the language of truth.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in view of his looming electoral defeat in the 2023 presidential elections, is attempting to further escalate tensions and instrumentalize the Cyprus issue in order to reap benefits from the country's nationalist audience. In many international media and in the occupied territories the information that on July 20, the anniversary of the black tragedy, the President of Turkey will declare the annexation of the occupied territories to Turkey is raging these days. A sober political analysis would conclude that such a scenario is not very likely because it would meet with strong opposition from the international community and of course from the progressive Turkish Cypriots themselves. However, with the Turkish president's popularity currently at rock bottom, and the nationalist frenzy in Turkey dominating the public sphere, the move of annexation, unthinkable until a few years ago, should not be completely ruled out. This is since for the Turkish president and his political allies, the exploitation of the Cyprus issue in extreme directions will activate the reflexes of Turkish nationalism with the expectation of overturning the polls.
Unfortunately, our political leadership does not seem prepared for such scenarios despite the fact that after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has been working methodically on the possible annexation of the occupied territories. The international press was recording it. Our Foreign Ministry was working methodically to build a profile for a presidential candidacy. That is the bitter truth.
Today the dangers are enormous for the future of our country. It takes a methodical effort, intense diplomacy to prevent such a negative development that would turn the Green Line into a hard border with Turkey. At the same time, policies should be implemented that will strengthen our relations with progressive Turkish Cypriots. The struggle for the reunification and independence of our homeland is a common struggle.
Yes, I believe that a solution is possible. That things can change.
We need to read and rationally decode international politics, to understand the new geopolitical context that is evolving, especially after the invasion of Ukraine and the UK's withdrawal from the EU, to fully and without wavering align ourselves with our Western allies and chart a new national strategy that will pave the way for freedom and vindication. The violent division of our homeland must be defeated. The violent separation of its communities and its people must be defeated. The struggle, despite the inequality of forces, the dedication to principles of an entire people is the key.
Apart from the Cyprus problem, what do you consider to be the most serious problem facing the country and how will you try to solve it?
Today, we need meritocracy and honesty in public life as never before. Meritocracy is a key tool for growth and progress, creating new jobs and restoring society's trust in institutions. Meritocracy in the selection of appointments to the Boards of Directors of semi-public organisations, the NPAs and the PSC will also bring about meritocracy in the appointments of human resources of semi-public organisations and the public sector more broadly. It will provide opportunities for many young people, all those excluded and isolated from the party system, to make a significant contribution to their country. Honesty is of capital importance for the good functioning of the state. Corrupt politicians and state officials are obviously not concerned with the common good, but with their own pockets.
We have a comprehensive proposal on all the important issues facing the country. For public transport it outlines how we will free citizens from the hell they live in on the streets of our cities how we will save millions of man-hours. We will immediately start implementing our programme to create modern, citizen-respecting public transport. At the same time we want to dramatically increase agricultural production and improve the tourism product with modern methods and attitudes to keep people in the countryside and increase national income. We intend to create the infrastructure to attract large high-tech companies, boost entrepreneurship, to create new jobs for both scientific, technical and labour personnel. We have ideas, we have a plan.
If you were President of the Republic at this time, can you tell us one or two steps you would take to address the issue of unemployment?
In terms of dealing with the impact of the increases, which mainly concern certain categories of food and construction materials, the appropriate policy is, first and foremost, to formulate appropriate wage adjustments through a framework agreement between the social partners. Our position is that, given the prevailing conditions and inflationary pressures, it becomes necessary for wage increases to take account of increased inflation through the reintroduction of the ATA. With regard to increased construction costs, the state has an important and upgraded role to play through a social housing construction programme for low-income groups and young couples. Special incentives should be adopted for the construction of housing in the countryside. The government's constant announcements of support for house building should finally be fleshed out.
Increases in energy product prices can be countered by (a) targeted measures for the benefit of low-income groups, e.g. covering the increased cost of electricity and subsidising the purchase of oil for heating purposes (b) upgrading incentives to use renewable sources and (c) upgrading energy saving schemes.
Specifically on the price of electricity, in our programme you will see an impressive set of measures for green growth, energy decoupling from fossil fuels and a massive shift to solar energy and the blue economy.
In our programme you will see an impressive set of measures for green growth, energy decoupling from fossil fuels and a massive shift to solar energy and the blue economy. We propose the creation of green social companies where every citizen will have the opportunity to participate, on the model of the Scandinavian countries. The sun and the wind belong to everyone, not just to a few businessmen friends of the party system. We want to create a new image for our country, to be referred to everywhere as the "Green State".
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